Durham have had a good first day of the Championship game
at the Oval, after bowling Surrey out for 237.
A clatter of wickets in the final session of the day
completely turned the day on its head, as the debutant off spinner Ryan Buckley
claimed a 5 wicket haul.
Despite the conditions seeming to suit the seam bowlers,
Gareth Batty elected to bat first after winning the toss of the coin, knowing
that spin would play a part. The team news was that Jason Roy, Gary Keedy and
Stuart Meaker were back in, in place of Graeme Smith, Jade Dernbach and Chris
Tremlett. It was a surprise that Dernbach was rested, but with another game
starting next Wednesday, perhaps that was a key factor.
Batty’s decision wasn’t immediately reaping rewards, as
Burns was caught behind for just 1, and after reaching 17, his batting partner
Jason Roy held out at mid-off. I think it was the wrong decision to open with
Roy, who has done the job before with varied success, and I would have
preferred to see Harinath with Burns.
Durham had made a good start, and Harinath and Solanki
had to knuckle down, but they ticked along at a good rate. Solanki had made it
to 38 before popping a catch off debutant Ryan Buckley to short leg. Once again
a good start from Vik, but failing to kick on is starting to get a bit
annoying, as we went to lunch on 103-3.
Harinath and de Bruyn began to get bogged down after the
interval, as the Durham bowlers tightened their lines from the first session.
De Bruyn especially was finding runs hard to come by, but Arun Harinath
completed his second consecutive half century off 106 balls, as the partnership
went past 50. However, Harinath couldn’t resist a nibble at Calum Thorp on 53
and the reliable Collingwood snaffled the chance at slip. Steve Davies almost
went immediately, but Buckley dropped a relatively straight forward caught and
bowled chance. De Bruyn then had a life on 36, when Mustard dropped one down
the leg side.
We capitalised on those missed chances, as de Bruyn and
Davies steadied the ship and took us to tea on 199-4, but the job was certainly
not done. They knew that if they could bat out the majority of the final
session, then the day would be ours. However, just after getting to his half
century, Davies missed a Borthwick full toss and was bowled for 52, which led
to a dramatic collapse.
Wilson gloved a rising Buckley ball to silly point on 6,
before Batty was caught trying to drive over cover without scoring; not the
shot required in the situation from the skipper. De Bruyn had also passed 50
for the first time this season, but he got out in the most unfortunate of circumstances.
He swept a ball into the boot of short leg, and it bounced up into the gleeful
hands of Phil Mustard when on 57. Linley was then caught at short leg, before
Keedy was LBW for 0, which meant 4 wickets had been lost for 0 runs, and we had
been bowled out for 237.
We had just under an hour to try and make some inroads
into the Durham line up, but Stoneman and Smith batted out the 15 overs well,
to finish on 48-0.
So, all things considered, that is a poor day for us.
After winning the toss and batting, getting bowled out for 237 is not good
enough. Some will argue that the pitch is turning and that isn’t that bad a
score, but considering we were 219-4, we should have scored far more than we
did.
7 wickets fell to the spinners in our innings, so all
things seem to suggest that it is doing something out there, but a couple of
those wickets were not to do with the pitch. Davies and Batty played poor
shots, and de Bruyn was desperately unlucky, so maybe it’s not as much of a
turner as people think.
Tomorrow, we will undoubtedly have to strike early,
because it seems that if you get in, batting isn’t too difficult, and if we are
not careful, Durham may rack up a big first innings lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment