Meaker leads Surrey fightback

It has been Surrey’s day on the 3^rd day of the LVCC Division One match between Surrey and Somerset, as the hosts avoided the follow on and reduced the visitors to 154-7, with a lead of 278. Stuart Meaker ripped through the Somerset order, claiming 5-42.

Surrey started the morning needing another 70-odd runs to avoid the follow on, which probably wouldn’t have been enforced anyway. Tom Maynard and Gareth Batty would have wanted a quiet start, and that is what they got. The pair batted sensibly, taking Surrey over 300 and a 3^rd batting point. The partnership had reached 91, when Batty was adjudged LBW for 36 in just the second over of the new ball.

Meaker hanged around for a bit, until he went for 2 to give Philander his 4^th victim of the innings. Maynard was running out of partners, as he had moved into the 80’s. However, he was the next man out when he was caught by Trego for 89. Another good innings from Maynard, showing an increase in maturity and ability to adapt to different situations put in front of him. As he has done all season, Jon Lewis looked good with the bat, finding the boundary 5 times in his 42, putting on a last wicket stand of 32 with George Edwards. Surrey 388 all out, trailing by 124.

Surrey would have been looking for quick wickets, whereas Somerset will have been looking to bat the hosts out of the game. It was Surrey who made the first move when Lewis had Suppiah caught behind. Meaker then had Barrow caught in the slips and Hildreth caught behind, to reduce the visitors to 30-3. A great start by the guys, but Somerset then fought back.

The form man Compton and keeper Kieswetter held off the pressure from the Surrey bowlers, with the latter batting in typically aggressive fashion. They started to build a partnership which could have single handily taken the game away from Surrey, as the lead was heading towards 250. However, after tea, Kieswetter got a leading edge and was caught by the skipper off Meaker.

Lewis and Meaker were bowling a really tight spell, in the best bowling conditions of the day so far. They complimented each other brilliantly, and it was Meaker who got the next wicket, when Trego played an inexcusable shot straight to Hamilton-Brown at mid off.

After a short delay for bad light, Meaker bowled Meschede to complete his second fifer in the Championship this season. Chris Jordan, who hadn’t bowled brilliantly up to this point, banged one in at Compton, who hooked the ball straight up in the air and Maynard took the catch. A big wicket in the context of the game, with Somerset 7 down with a lead of 271.

That was the last wicket of the day, as bad light brought an early end to proceedings.

So, Somerset are of course still on top in this game, but Surrey will be confident of forcing a draw on a pitch which is still good for the batsman. If the light would have stayed good, we could have finished off the Somerset second innings tonight, and with the likes of Maynard and RHB in the team, all 3 results would have been possible. If we manage to knock the tail over early tomorrow however, I feel that we still would be in with a chance, and after conceding over 500 in the first innings, to be even within a slight chance of victory is phenomenal.