Finals Day awaits for Surrey

Finals Day is almost upon us and a 14 man squad has been named for our Semi Final against the Hampshire Royals, with Glenn Maxwell returning to the fold.

We are overwhelming underdogs heading into tomorrow as we come up against winners of two of the last 3 English T20 competitions and a side who have only lost once so far in this year’s competition. However, anything can happen in Twenty20, and we could well find ourselves champions come 10pm tomorrow evening.

Here is the squad that has been selected and probable line up:

Jason Roy

Steve Davies

Vikram Solanki (C)

Glenn Maxwell

Gary Wilson

Azhar Mahmood

Zafar Ansari

Zander de Bruyn

Jon Lewis

Chris Tremlett

Jade Dernbach

Tim Linley

Tom Curran

Rory Burns

That is how I see the team shaping up and it is probably what I, and many Surrey fans, would select. Some would argue that after Rory Burns’ recent performances with the bat in List A cricket and Tom Curran’s effort with the ball that they should be selected, but to pick such inexperienced T20 players for a massive game like a Semi Final is a big gamble, and something that won’t happen unless an injury occurs.

I sound like a broken record when I say that the batting hasn’t really fired in the competition, but it really hasn’t. Our top scorer, Jason Roy, has 272 runs in the tournament, well over 200 less than Hampshire’s top scorer Michael Carberry (496). Hampshire have hit 8 half centuries and 1 century compared to our 5 50’s and zero 100’s in the 11 matches so far. But there is the argument that Hampshire are over reliant on Carberry at the top of the order and if he doesn’t fire, they may struggle.

In some regards that is the case. He has hit 4 of their half centuries and of course that superb hundred against Lancashire last week in the quarter final, so if you get him out early you have a far better chance of victory. Don’t underestimate their other batsmen though. James Vince, who has played a couple of explosive innings Live on Sky of recent weeks, has had a relatively poor competition from his standards with just 256 runs, but we all know what he can do. Neil McKenzie has quietly gone about his business this year, hitting 296 runs in just 7 innings, showing that he has still got what it takes and Sean Ervine and Liam Dawson showed what they could do last night.

Whatever happens, Hampshire will have quality batsmen for our bowlers to deal with and will be able to post a competitive score or chase a competitive total if required. Therefore our batsmen need to step up and produce the goods. Despite being our top scorer, only 1 50 from Roy is not good enough in 11 matches, so surely he is due a big one tomorrow. Davies has hit a couple of typical Davies innings but has all too frequently got out early playing innocuous shots, almost throwing his wickets away. Whatever people say about how well Wilson and co have done getting us out of trouble in those middle overs, Davies and Roy are our quickest scorers and if either of those bat 15+ overs, then we are in for a great score. If not, then we may struggle to set up a score, or chase what Hampshire put in front of us.

There is the million dollar man though, who has found some form for Australia A over the last few weeks. He hit 155 in a First Class game before a 145* off 79 balls and 93 off 56 balls in a couple of One day games. After only scoring 87 from his 6 innings for us in the group stage, let’s hope that he can continue in that vein and pull off an innings against his old team tomorrow.

When it comes to the bowlers, I don’t think that there are many better attacks than ours in the country. However, without Batty we are seriously depleted as he fires the team up when they are having a bad few overs and gets his fair share of wickets too. Our other spinners, Ansari and Maxwell, don’t pick up wickets as regular and go for far more runs per over than Batty. However, with Jade, Azhar, Trem and Lewis, we have 4 very experienced bowlers who will be trying their upmost to lead us to victory, as it is unlikely that 3 of them will play at Finals Day again in their careers.

A key battle will be between Carberry and Dernbach, but I would be inclined to open with spin against Carberry to try and prize him out early. Another interesting battle will be between Roy and Dimi Mascarenhas, with Roy hitting him to all parts at the Oval a few weeks ago before Dimi bowled him with a slower delivery.

Whatever happens, we have done extremely well to get to Finals Day, but we can’t head into tomorrow with that attitude or we will come away with nothing. We have to use our underdog status to our advantage, with most of the pressure on the Royals, and put in a performance to make themselves and our travelling support proud.

Good lucks lads, and bring home the trophy.