County Championship Surrey v Yorkshire at Guildford June 11-14th
Surrey CCC v Yorkshire CCC at Guildford June 11-14th
Neil Whitaker reports
Day 2
YORKSHIRE skipper Steven Paterson took three wickets in six balls to give the Tykes the better of day one against Surrey at Woodbridge Road Guildford before bad light ended play early.
His first victim was Surrey captain for the match Ben Foakes who top scored with 62 and shared in a fifth wicket partnership of 118 with debutante Jamie Smith. Foakes, who shown urgency throughout his innings chopped on.
Foakes’ 62 was his third Championship fifty of the season. He used his feet at every opportunity to Dom Bess. Firstly he chipped him over long for a one bounce four. Later he drove Bess to the extra cover boundary. In one over from Jordan Thompson he cut him to the cover boundary and finished the over by driving him to the cover boundary.
After the departure of Foakes, Will Jacks shouldered arms to the next ball and was bowled. Rikki Clarke survived the hat trick ball but Smith fell to the last ball of the over when he drove over a ball that came back at him.
The eighteen year old from Epsom gave a good account of himself especially coming in when he did with Surrey on 147 for four after Surrey had lost two wickets for five runs in 15 balls. Having survived a leg before appeal Ryan Patel couldn’t survive the next ball. He tried to turn Ben Coad off his legs and was adjudged leg before. With Scott Borthwick they had added 44 in 16 overs.
Borthwick joined Patel in the hutch when he nimble at one outside his off stump to 18 year old Thompson for his second wicket on debut. Thompson got his first Championship wicket with the first ball of his fifth over. Bowling from the Railway end he induced Mark Stoneman to play an indifferent shot and gave Jonny Tattersall an easy catch.
Thompson said: ‘It was good that I got my first wicket early on, I was’nt waiting and wondering when it was going to come. I got told last week that I was in the squad and told on Sunday by Andrew Gale that I was playing. Unfortunately both my mum and dad wern’t here they are both back in Yorkshire.
I just stuck to what I’ve been doing in the second team. I treated it like another game and I think I’ve done it pretty well. We were struggling when they were 240 for four and then Patterson got those three quick wickets. They are now 290 for eight so I think that we’ve come out on top.”
He survived an appeal for caught behind off Ben Coad to the third ball of the day and on 12 he edged Duanne Olivier inches out of the reach off Thompson at gully.
Stoneman brought up the 50 partnership with Borthwick when he swept Bess to thge mid wicket boundary. He clipped Patterson off his legs to the square leg boundary to bring up his second Championship fifty of the season.
Apart from Will Jacks all the Surrey batsmen got starts but couldn’t go on, They lost their first wicket when Dean Elgar squeezed a drive off Patterson to Bess at point.
After the first day was washed a Herculean effort by the ground staff got the game off to a prompt start. Surrey were without skipper Rory Burns who had a back injury and was replaced by Smith. Former captain Gareth Batty was replaced by former Lancashire player Jordan Clarke making his Surrey Specsavers County Championship debut.
Yorkshire were without David Willey because of a family reasons.
Day 3
ONLY 28 overs were possible on the third day before bad light stopped play at 1.00 and rain caused play to be abandoned for the day at 3.47.
On the plus side for Yorkshire they managed to wrap the Surrey innings up but on the minus side they lost Adam Lyth. They struck with the fourth ball of the morning when Morne Morkel edged a drive off Ben Coad to Lyth at second slip.
Jordan Clark edged Steven Patterson on nine but stumper Jonny Tattersall standing up had two or three attempts to take the catch but didn’t. After a flurry of runs from Clark he top edged a pull off Patterson to substitute Matthew Fisher at mid on to give Patterson his eighth first class five wicket haul.
Patterson said: “It’s just nice to contribute. Because we lost the first day we decided that our best chance of winning the match was to bowl first. It’s the kind of surface that if it had been four days it would have been a good game of cricket.
If we agree to set up a match we would sacrifice baby potential batting points.”
The Yorkshire innings nearly got off to shake start when Will Fraine on four got a leading edge to Morkel and the ball flew to cover. Mark Stoneman ran from mid off to cover and dove full length but couldn’t complete the catch.
Lyth and Fraine made a confident start and after surviving a couple of appeals they saw Morkel and Matt Dunn, who took wickets last week at Guildford, out of the attack. The pair put on 51 before Lyth edged a drive off Rikki Clarke to Will Jacks in the gully who took a brilliant one handed catch at knee height. Jacks seamed most surprised as he looked down and saw the ball in his right hand.
Surrey’sScott Borthwick believes that the reigning champions can still retain the Specsavers County championship, speaking during a rain stoppage he said: “There is still a lot of cricket to be played. With the squad we’ve got, we still believe that we can win the competition despite being 52 points behind leaders Somerset. Last week against Somerset we had them at 50/5 and then dropped some vital catches and when we batted we were doing well but we lost wickets in clusters. I feel that we are not miles away, we are just one win from getting going.”
Borthwick who missed the second half of last season because of a wrist injury though the was on the way back when hit a century against Durham university before the championship season started. “I hurt a muscle in my side which surprised me because I didn’t know I had a muscle in my side. That injury meant I missed the first match and the whole of the Royal London One day cup, so I feel that my season has just begun.”
Borthwick made 21 in the first innings against Yorkshire cannot get a big score since he returned to the side. “ I am doing the hard work and getting starts but I am just not going on.”
He also feels more confident about his bowling but as he says it’s not been the conditions for a leg spinner. “I feel that if Rory Burns (Surrey captain) or any captain throws me the ball I can do a job and after your first spell you get your confidence.
Day 4
THE spectators who turned up on the final day at Guildford saw more cricket than they expected to but in the end the 2019 summer weather was the winner as bad light ended the match with 21 overs remaining.
On the final day 36 overs were lost before bad light drove the players off the field with 21 overs left but those that came saw Yorkshire collapse from 58 for one to 148 all out in 25 overs to go and fail to save the follow on. 22 year old Jordan Thompson, on debut, was their top scorer with 34. He came in at 93 for for 6 and was the last man out with the score on 148, 165 behind Surrey.
Thompson looked confident in his knock and took the fight to the Surrey bowlers. He drove Rikki Clarke back over his head for a six into hospitality test and worked the next ball ball off his legs to the fine leg boundary. In Clarke’s next over he drilled him to the extra cover boundary and two balls later he became Yorkshire’s top scorer in the innings when he uppercut him to the third man boundary.
It took a shrewd piece of captaincy to get rid of him. Stand in skipper Ben Foakes had moved Morne Morkel earlier in the over from long off to fine leg. Matt Dunn bowled a bouncer and Thompson hooked him to fine leg where Morkel took a running catch at fine leg. If it had been anyone else but the 6ft 4 South African it would have gone for a six.
Foakes, captaining Surrey for the first time said: “Morkel wasn’t happy about being moved from long off to fine leg but Thompson was having an hack at everything and the ball at end runs away from you quite quickly at that end so we needed a faster fielder out there. But in the end it worked out well.”
Amazingly play on the final day got underway on time but Yorkshire must have wished it hadn’t when Gary Ballance fell to the first ball of the day when he defended a short ball from Morkel edged it to Dean Elgar in the gully. It was the first of Morkel’s three wickets in 12 balls.
Next to go was Will Fraine in Morkel’s next over when he edged a drive to Foakes. Two balls later Morkel took his third wicket in 12 balls when Jack Leaning pushed forward at him but the ball found the outside edge and Foakes took a brilliant one handed catch diving to his right in front of the slips.
Jonny Tattersall had a wild slash at Jordan Clark and Rikki Clarke at first slip took the catch above his head. The same two combined for the next ball when Dom Bess didn’t get over the ball and edged it to Rikki Clarke took the catch at shin height. For the second time in 12 months Clark was on a hattrick. Last year he dismissed Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Jonny Bairstow in the Roses match at Emirates Old Trafford for Lancashire but there was no hat trick this year as Thompson survived the hat trick ball when he dug out a yorker.
After that ball the umpires took the players off for rain but five balls after the restart
Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who got off the mark by clipping Morkel off his legs into the refreshment tent,was caught down the legside by Foakes off Rikki Clarke. After three more overs the rain drove the players off the field for an early lunch.
Yorkshire skipper Steven Patterson had a torrid time in his 34 minute innings either side of rain stoppage against Rikki Clarke and Morkel surviving a couple of aggressive appeal from behind the stumps. Eventually he fell to a low catch from Foakes. After a long appeal umpire Jeremy Lloyds consulted with Tim Robinson before giving Patterson out.
Ben Coad never looked comfortable and was beaten by the pace of Morkel when Morkel went back to bowling over the wicket.Yorkshire followed on 165 behind and had 38 overs to survive but in the end only faced 13.3 overs.
Foakes added: “It was the first time I have captained since I was 11 and it’s difficult captain and wicket keep. We turned up this morning aiming to get as many bonus points as possible and then try to win the game.
I thought Jamie Smith did amazingly well and showed everyone what a talent he is and didn’t look out of place and Jordan Clark is a wicket taker. In this division if you lose a couple of games you can get in a rut but we’ve got a week off and we’re going to rest.”Yorkshire’s first X1 coach Andrew Gale said: “It’s been frustrating. Our Preparations have been tough. We haven’t had nets on the morning there’s no Indoor Centre on an outground – it’s not been ideal.
We bowled well in patches but not for long enough. Full credit to Surrey, they batted well to get themselves in that position. When we batted this is morning, we took the position we were in for granted and weren’t quite switched on. If you’re not switched on against good sides like Surrey, they can do some damage to you. That’s what they did. There was a tricky little period at the end there, but we got a draw out of the game. It hasn’t burst the bubble. We weren’t at our best, but we’re still playing some good cricket and we still have some good confidence in the camp.”
He added: “The weather interruptions made it difficult. because you’re coming into today thinking about bonus points, which takes away from the process. You don’t want to think about the outcome. Lads talk about rain and light, and it’s not easy. It can distract you. I thought that’s what happened this morning with the bat. You talk about being switched on and getting into the battle from ball one, and we didn’t. We were right on the back foot and batting to save the game. It’s a lesson to us all.”