Bowlers lead Surrey to opening T20 win

Surrey have beaten the Essex Eagles by 17 runs in the opening game of the FLT20, thanks to a superb bowling performance.

On a gorgeous evening in South London, Rory Hamilton-Brown won the toss and elected to bat without hesitation. The first surprise of the night was the omission of Mark Ramprakash from the starting X1, which meant the batting would look weak with an out of form Spriegel at 5. Meaker was the other from the 13 to be left out, which as expected, left Dernbach and Nannes as the main seamers, and Batty, Ansari, Spriegs and Kartik backing them up.

Davies and RHB started well, with the keeper taking 3 consecutive boundaries in the second over off the normally economical David Masters. However, Davies went for 19 in the 3^rd over, when he was beaten in the air by Tim Phillips and was stumped. That provoked a mini collapse, with Graham Napier having the skipper caught and bowled off a leading edge and the very next ball Zander de Bruyn was bowled by a superb Yorker. We had slipped to 31-3 in the 4^th, and the start we were all dreading was confirmed.

Jason Roy and Matt Spriegel had a rebuilding job to do, and a boundary from Roy brought up the Surrey 50 in the 8^th over. But Spriegel was bowled on the last ball of the over by Ryan ten Doeschate, with a ball that nipped back a long way, and Surrey were 56-4 after 8. Roy was joined by Gary Wilson, and took 2 boundaries off Tymal Mills’ first over, to keep the scoring rate up at around 7 an over.

However, Roy went soon after, when he was caught off Franklin at long off for 22, and Surrey were in danger of capitulating. But Wilson and was joined by Ansari, and the pair batted sensibly but still ticking the score along, and took us over 100. Ansari was caught behind for 13 off Phillips, but Wilson was still going, finding the boundary 3 times overall on a pitch which didn’t look easy to bat on.

Batty came and went for 3, before Wilson fell for 33 on the penultimate ball of the innings, with Surrey registering a below par score of 128-9. Not the greatest start from our batsman, and even though it was a tough pitch, we were still about 20 runs short of a competitive total.

Pettini and England-bound Bopara opened the innings for the Eagles, and they looked at ease at the crease, with Nannes looking rusty on his return to the side. The first wicket fell in the last over of the powerplay, when Dernbach had Pettini caught behind. Greg Smith didn’t last long at the crease as he was run out by Dernbach, and some great work from Davies, and Essex had fallen to 54-2 in the 7^th.

But while Bopara was still there, the task looked relatively comfortable for the visitors, and with fellow England batsman Shah with him, it looked even easier. But Gareth Batty made the breakthrough when he trapped Shah LBW for 9. Essex requiring a further 62 off 11 overs.

In his next over, Batty got the danger man Bopara, as he attempted a reverse sweep, and the safe hands of Spriegel held onto the catch at backward square. Spriegel was back in the action a couple of overs later, when he had ten Doeschate caught by Jason Roy in the deep, and Essex were 81-5 in the 13^th.

Zafar Ansari then had his first wicket in the next over, when he trapped the Essex skipper Foster LBW, and the Eagles were 6 down. And the man who hit a record 16 sixes against us at Whitgift School last year, Graham Napier, was involved in an almighty mix up with James Franklin, and was run out by Jason Roy.

Gareth Batty came back into the attack, and had his 3^rd wicket when Franklin was caught off a leading edge by the skipper, and Essex were 88-8 in the 16^th over. But Essex weren’t giving up, as Tim Phillips slog swept Spriegel for the first maximum of the game. Essex required a further 28 off the final 3 overs of the game.

After taking just 4 off Kartik’s final over, Dernbach was brought back into the attack, and after deceiving Masters with a slower one, he followed it up by yorking the Essex seamer with a quick one. They managed to take the game to the final over, but 22 was too stiff a target off the experienced Dirk Nannes, and Surrey had won by 17 runs.

Well, how did we win that? The batsman failed but the bowlers have once again pulled the game back fantastically. Our score was without doubt below par, even though it was a difficult pitch, but as said on the commentary it was a serviceable total, keeping us within a chance of victory. Huge credit must go to Gary Wilson, who recognised the state of the game and the pitch, and played it perfectly in his 33. Without him, we would have been nowhere.

Nannes looked a little rusty, but everyone else excelled with the ball. Dernbach showed just how good he is at the end of the innings, and will be a huge miss as he now joins the England squad, and Kartik showed all his experience in going for just 17, even though he didn’t claim a wicket. However, the stand out bowler without doubt was Gareth Batty, who picked up 3 wickets including the prize scalp of Bopara.

We now head to Lord’s tomorrow night for the London Derby, where our batting has surely got to improve and it will be helped if Maynard is fit, looking to make it 2 out of 2. Come on the Rey!