Friday 13 April 2012

Middlesex's bowlers halt Surrey



Middlesex will be the happier of the two sides after Day two of the LVCC Division One match at Lord’s, reducing Surrey to 161-5 after being bowled out this morning for 256.

Surrey started the morning needing just the one wicket to polish off the Middlesex first innings. However, that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Malan continued on his merry way against some slightly loose bowling early on from Jade Dernbach. Malan found a willing partner in Corey Collymore who regularly played his only shot he has; the forward defence. The left hander was closing in on a slow, but superb century. Chris Jordan was then brought on though, and in his first over, he got Malan to tickle one down the leg side and Davies took the catch. Malan gone for 88, Middlesex 256 all out.

Jacques Rudolph and Steve Davies opened as expected, and they started cautiously, in wake of some tight bowling from Murtagh and Collymore. They safely guided Surrey through to lunch on 35-0. The left handed pair continued from where they left off after the break, playing very watchfully, as well as picking off the odd poor delivery. Dexter switched between his 4 seamers, with Berg and Roland-Jones bowling tightly, but without success. However, the Middlesex skipper called on his tall spinner, Ollie Rayner, who gave him immediate success. On just his third delivery, he removed Rudolph stumped by Simpson, 5 short of his first half century for Surrey. The South African will be desperately disappointed with the way he got out, especially with batting being so difficult.

Mark Ramprakash, needing to find some form, joined Steven Davies, who was batting in an uncharacteristic way. He brought up his first 50 of the season with a single of Gareth Berg. It had come off 122 balls, and I think it is safe to say it wasn’t one of his finest knocks, but it was one of the most important ones in the circumstances. The pair took Surrey to tea on 109-1, trailing by 147.

However, after a couple more sweet boundaries, Collymore found the outside edge of Davies’ bat, and the former Worcestershire man had gone for 62. A good innings from Davies, considering he hasn’t played a game since the first warm up before the Pakistan tests. Zander de Bruyn joined Ramps, and the runs completely dried up. There was some real attritional cricket from the experienced pair, with some ironic cheers from the crowd whenever Surrey got a run.

The run rate of the partnership did gradually increase as it went on, but as it did so, Dexter trapped Ramprakash LBW, with a ball that nipped back in. Once again Ramprakash batting for a long time, with his 17 coming off 90 balls, but without the weight of runs needed. Even though it is early in the season, he is worryingly showing the same form of 2011. And Surrey were struggling, when Roland-Jones trapped de Bruyn in front for 17. Surrey 148-4, with RHB and Maynard both in on 0.

Maynard didn’t last long though, as the part timer Dexter picked up his second wicket, getting the Welshman to edge to Berg at slip. 3 wickets had gone for just 5 runs. Jordan joined the skipper and they took their side to close on 161-5.

Middlesex had bowled superbly all day, but Surrey would have been disappointed to undo the fine work that Rudolph and Davies did. Surrey will be hopeful of reaching Middlesex’s total but the late wickets being lost has surely lessened the odds of a substantial first innings lead.

by Lewis Winter
twitter.com/surreyfanblog

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