Cricket

SURREY STRUGGLE TO FIND FEET

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8 May 2008

By Jon Surtees

Sussex (ten points) drew with Surrey (eleven points)

In a game reduced to three days by persistent rain on day one, Surrey and Sussex were reduced to playing for bonus points at Hove as Mark Butcher's side recorded their third draw out of three games in the 2008 County Championship.

After winning the toss and inserting Sussex, the home side progressed to 318 for 5 at the end of day two, with Murray Goodwin (98) and Carl Hopkinson (97) both playing excellently but falling tantalisingly close to a century.

Sussex continued their painstaking progress throughout day three, adding 157 runs to their overnight total of 318 but taking 45 overs to do so. Decent scores from Matt Prior (51) and Robin Martin-Jenkins (53) helped the champions finish on 475 all out. The pick of the Surrey bowlers was former Sussex man Saqlain Mushtaq, who bowled tirelessly for his 4/126 from 36 overs.

With a positive result almost certainly out of the window, Surrey were playing for bonus points - see Butcher's Block for Surrey coach Alan Butcher's thoughts on this.

Jonathan Batty was dismissed cheaply but a century stand between Scott Newman and Mark Ramprakash put the Brown Caps in great shape at 164/2 at the end of day three.

The final day was - as ever is - all about Ramprakash who completed his 99th first class century with some aplomb. His hundredth ton seems to be as inevitable as the sun rise and could easily come when Surrey visit Southampton in ten days time.

Further contributions from Usman Afzaal (71) and Ali Brown (76) saw Surrey make it to 400 - and their final batting bonus point - before an end was called after Afzaal and Brown threw down thirteen, entirely pointless, overs to make it to the end of the day.

Middlesex (no points) lost to Surrey (two points) by five wickets

Surrey avenged their earlier defeat to Middlesex in fine style at Lords on Sunday, with James Benning leading their saunter to a solid five wicket victory.

The Brown Caps started well, with Jade Dernbach and Pedro Collins taking two apiece at the start that left Middlesex on 37/4 with all four of their most dangerous threats - Ed Joyce, Ed Smith, Andrew Strauss and Owais Shah - all back in the pavilion.

Only a mid innings burst from Gareth Berg (65) and former Surrey man Ben Scott (52) saw the hosts post a remotely challenging total of 233/8 off their 50 overs.

Pick of the Surrey bowlers was the metronomic Matthew Nicholson (3/37) who led Jade Dernbach (3/44) and Pedro Collins (2/36) and Chris Jordan (0/41) through forty overs of excellent pace bowling.

Scott Newman and Benning started the reply well, putting on 87 before Newman was run out for 35. However, Benning stayed firm, reaching his 106 off  84 balls before being dismissed by Murtagh, another former Surrey player.
The experienced heads of Ali Brown (40 not out), Mark Butcher (12) and Jonathan Batty (18) prevailed though and Surrey reached the target with three overs in hand.

Surrey (no points) lost to Kent (two points) by 90 runs

Hoping to build on the Sunday's dismissal of Middlesex, Surrey slumped to a disappointing home defeat to the international all stars of Kent.

With Mark Butcher resting an ankle knock he picked up against Middlesex, Mark Ramprakash captained the side and started badly by losing the toss.

Pedro Collins started well though, claiming Robert Key and Joe Denly early up before Matt Nicholson added South African Martin van Jaarsveld (23) and Darren Stevens for a duck.

However, South African Justin Kemp (63), only recently cleared to play by the ECB, combined with former England keeper Geraint Jones (86) to score heavily. When Kemp was sent packing by Chris Schofield, former Surrey and Pakistan legend Azhar Mahmood came to the crease and tonked the attack to all parts of the ground, scoring a violent 62 off 43 balls. Collins eventually added both Jones and Azhar to his tally but the damage had already been done and when Kent's third South African, Ryan McLaren kept up the momentum with 17 off 9 balls they ended on 282/7.

With a large sun in the sky and a helpful pitch on the ground, Surrey viewed the total as eminently gettable but were soon on the back foot when Newman (4), Benning (16), Ramprakash (5) and Afzaal (8) were all dismissed early on.

From there on in, only Jonathan Batty (63) was able to stick around for any length of time and when Ryan McLaren came back for a second spell, the Surrey tail fell like a pack of cards. 24 from Nicholson and 20 from Saker, making his first appearance of the season, added some respectability to the score but the Brown Caps were eventually dismissed for 192 off just 42.4 overs.

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