Cricket

BUTCHER'S BLOCK

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8 May 2008

ALAN BUTCHER'S VIEW

In summary, this week has seen another rain affected championship game, a solid one day victory and a bad one day loss.

For the four day game against Sussex we took a gamble, thinking our best chance of winning the game was sticking them in and bowling them out. To be honest it was a bit of a long shot because it was a bloody good pitch.

When we batted I thought we did very well and showed a lot of discipline, especially considering that we'd been in the field for such a long time.

That meant we ended up with one more point than they had on their home ground, which doesn't mean a lot but does highlight what I've thought for a long time that batting and bowling bonus points are completely meaningless in four day cricket.

Without bonus points in the four day game, there is much more chance of actually forcing a game of cricket. Against Sussex the prospect of forcing a result was remote, so our only resource was to go for the bonus points. If they hadn't been there then we might have tried to work out more inventive ways to win the game instead of going for the points.

In the first innings of a cricket match you have to bowl out a side as quickly as possible and then score a lot of runs yourself, that's what the game is about! I don't see the point in getting extra rewards for that! The bonus points end up being more certain than chasing a win that you might not get.

Mark Ramprakash got his 99th hundred against Sussex on the fourth day, which means he is only one away from 100 centuries, which really would be quite something. He has now scored as many centuries for us as he has for Middlesex in something like a third of the innings. That he has scored so consistently over the last eight years is quite phenomenal.

Against Middlesex on Sunday we bowled throughout their innings and ended up with a comfortable win in which I thought James Benning played exceptionally well. You always want to be the top team in London and - added to the fact that Tim Murtagh and Ben Scott had previously been with us and are now at Middlesex - it just adds a little bit to the game.

On Monday against Kent, we thought it was a good pitch and their total, although quite large, was certainly not out of the question. When they were batting I thought we bowled very well for the first overs and were punished at the end. Everyone at Surrey knows what Azhar Mahmood can do at the end of an innings and he did it on Monday.

When we were chasing, we just didn't get anyone that stayed in until Jonathan Batty, but by then it was a bit late because the other batters had all gone! We thought that if someone got a big score and stayed there, we had a real chance of chasing it down.

Sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposition, they played very well and bat very deep.

Both Mark Butcher and Chris Jordan missed the game on Monday with little niggles but I'm hopeful they will be available for the trip back to Hove this Thursday.

Alan Butcher is cricket manager at Surrey CCC

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