Notts thrash Surrey at Guildford

Surrey have been comprehensively beaten by the Nottinghamshire Outlaws in Group B of the CB40 at Guildford, going down by 5 wickets.

On a sunny afternoon, and on the same pitch as used in the Championship, Gareth Batty won the toss and elected to bat. Tim Linley and Chris Jordan  were the two to be left out, which meant Rory Burns would be playing his first CB40 game of the season.

With the way the pitch played in the previous 4 days, you would have thought that 250 was a minimum. It wasn't to be though, as our top order fell apart contributing to a massively below par score. Roy went third ball of the game, quickly followed by Davies and Wilson in the second over.

Zander de Bruyn usually bats well at Guildford, but played an awful shot in the situation, caught at slip, and we were 8-5 when Burns was out attempting a pull. An embarrassing start by our batsman, and had given our lower order a nigh on impossible situation. 

Spriegel and Ansari had recovered the score slightly, until Ansari was caught off a leading edge for 16 to reduce us to 48-6. The skipper Batty needed to build a partnership with Spriegel to get the score anywhere near respectability. The pair batted well, putting on the largest partnership of the innings, and took us toward 100 before Batty was caught behind off Gurney, and Spriegel was bowled by Gurney for 38. A good innings from Spriegel in the circumstances, but as we looked to push on, he got out to a poor shot. 

After a few lusty blows from Lewis, he was caught behind once again off Gurney, before the last wicket off Karik fell with the score on 123. A terrible performance from our batsman, but our lower order can hold their heads high as at 8-5, they could have easily subsided. 

After Hales and Lumb looked extremely comfortable for the first 6 overs of the reply, Lumb set off for a single but was sent back by Hales, with Lewis and Spriegel combining to run the former England opener out. 

Hales was then bounced out by Meaker, as Burns took a simple catch at deep square leg to reduce the visitors to 39-2 in the 10th. However, Meaker was certainly not at his best, and was leaking runs left, right and centre as Notts raced towards their modest target. England internationals James Taylor and Samit Patel then put on a a partnership that ended the slight glimmer of hope the Surrey fielders would have held onto.

Before they could finish off the job, Kartik had Patel caught well by Wilson in the slips, but it was too little, too late. The bowlers weren't giving up, as Batty had Voges caught behind for 2, and the skipper then had Wessels caught off a leading edge, but the victory was Notts' not long after by 5 wickets. 

So, an extremely disappointing performance today, and if we continue to play like that we will not be able to defend out title. We have lost 2 big players from our side in Maynard and Hamilton-Brown, and it was always going to be difficult without them. However, there is no real excuse for the way our top order  collapsed the way they did, and some practice in the nets needs to be be done.

Two players stood out for me today; Batty and Spriegel. They both batted very well, putting on a partnership which made sure that we even passed 100, and they also bowled superbly. Even though he didn't take a wicket, Spriegs only went for 20 off his 8 overs, and the skipper also bowled tightly as well as taking two wickets.

The pitch looked good for the spinners, and I feel that 200 would have been a good score, even with the Notts firepower. It's our first loss of the season in the competition, and we cannot afford to lose that many more if we want to get out of the group.

We now travel up to Trent Bridge to play Notts in the Championship next week, and we will be looking to get just our second win of the season, as the relegation battle continues.