Rain wins after Roy century

The YB40 game between Surrey and Durham Dynamos has been abandoned due to the rain, after Jason Roy struck a century at the Kia Oval.

Roy hit 117 to lead us to a below par 216 all out, but the weather intervened midway through the game, and the Durham batsman never got out to the middle.

Durham won the toss and knowing that rain was forecast for later in the evening, they elected to field first. One enforced change for us was of course that of Graeme Smith who was replaced in the side by Tom Jewell, not Rory Burns.

Davies got off to a flyer once again, hitting a 4 and a six in the first two overs, before holding out to Benkenstein at a deepish mid-off for 16. Roy, opening up, was joined by Solanki, and they continued at a good pace, until the latter was caught behind for 18 as the Dynamos made a good start.

Zander de Bruyn was pushed up to number 4, and had one of his infuriating innings, where he batted at a slow pace before getting out for 24 off 41 deliveries half way through the 24^th. Before de Bruyn was dimissed, Roy went to his half century at a run a ball with a boundary off Rushworth, but we got into trouble straight after the South African went, as Gary Wilson was out LBW without scoring just 3 balls later.

Zafar Ansari was run out for 9, and Jewell LBW for just 1, as we started to dramatically collapse towards the end of the innings. With mayhem unfolding at the other end, Roy stayed calm and went to his century at just over a run a ball. Not his most fluent hundred, but without it, we would have struggled to post any score of note.

Batty and Roy then fell in quick succession, and it was down to Jon Lewis (24*) to power us towards 216, before we were bowled out with 15 balls of the innings still remaining.

However, that was the last action of the evening, with the not relenting, meaning it was 1 point apiece.

We can’t do anything about the weather, but we can do something about our batting. Jason Roy was the only batsman who looked comfortable at the crease, and was the only one out of Solanki, de Bruyn and Davies who kicked on after making some sort of start. Credit to him, because take his score out of the equation, then it could have been a different story, with Lewis’ 24* the next best score.

It was a surprise to see Jewell play instead of Burns, considering the form that Burns is in, and Jewell will be annoyed that he didn’t take his chance with the bat, because he finds appearances hard to come by.

Just a word for Ben Stokes, who injured his back while catching Jason Roy today. He went off on a stretcher and was immediately taken to hospital. I wish him well of course.

Tomorrow we come up against the same opposition in the Championship, still looking for our first win in that format after 3 draws so far, and will go in without skipper Graeme Smith for the first time. After his hundred today, Roy will definitely play, and presumably bat at number 7, with Wilson moving up to number 3, and Harinath opening up with Burns.