Frustrating first day at Guildford

Lancashire will be the far happier team after Day one of the LVCC Division One match at Guildford, after ending the day on 245-3, but it wasn't without chances.

On a glorious summers morning, Gareth Batty won the toss and elected to field first. A surprising decision, but with some cloud about and it being the first game since the razzmatazz of the T20, bowling may not have been a bad idea. Jordan and Linley were the 2 from the 13 man squad to be left out, which meant Chris Tremlett and Zafar Ansari made their first appearance in the Championship this year.

Early wickets was the order of the day, but they didn't arrive, as Stephen Moore and Paul Horton got their side off to a solid start without many alarms. An hour into the day, Stuart Meaker made the breakthrough when he beat Moore for pace and trapped him LBW. 

That was the last wicket before lunch though, as Karl Brown joined Horton and he started to up the rate. Batty ringed the changes but struggled to apply pressure onto the Lancashire pair, who batted rather comfortably. There was a chance just before lunch though, as Tremlett drew Brown into a false shot, but the skipper put down a straightforward chance at first slip.

Horton was looking imperiously good, but he also gave a chance straight after the lunch break, when Kartik couldn't hold on to a low chance at second slip, once again off Tremlett. The partnership went past 100, and even though they gave those chances, it reaffirmed the miscalculation Batty had made in electing to bowl first.

Meaker was brought back into the attack, and he picked up the second, and his second, when Brown looked to run him down to 3rd man but could only edge through to the safe hands of Steve Davies. Ashwell Prince was the next man in, and straight away looked at ease at the crease, as he and Horton took their side to tea just 2 down.

A heavy rain shower in the interval lead to a delay to the evening session, and after coming out for a couple of overs to gain their first Batting point, bad light led to another delay.

The players finally managed to get back out in the middle at 20 past 5, still with 17 overs remaining in the day. The batsman managed to negotiate 11 of those overs, with Horton going to a superb championship hundred, but Tremlett finally had his first wicket of the day, when Batty managed to hold onto Horton at slip. 

But just 3 balls later, the poor fielding returned, when the normally reliable Davies put down a relatively easy chance down the leg side off Croft.  A third drop off the bowling of Tremlett. Croft survived another chance toward the end of the day, this time off Meaker, as Kartik once again put one down, but this time it was an extremely tough chance down to his right. Prince and Croft took their side to the close just the 3 down, completing a fine day for the visitors. 

Plenty of negatives in our performance today, especially with the fielding, as 4 catches went down. We have 3 spinners in our side, but worryingly they were played extremely comfortably by the batsman, and im not sure why Batty persisted with Kartik in the final session as he was so ineffective.

The main positive was the return to First Class cricket of Chris Tremlett, who bowled extremely well, and on another day would have had 4 wickets. 

Outsiders looking in would say "What was Gareth Batty thinking?" when he chose to bowl first, but the conditions did suit it at the time and the pitch was one of the greenest I have seen at the Festival. However, it didn't play like he thought it would, and if we fail to pick up early wickets tomorrow, Lancashire may bat us out of the game.