Half centuries from Zander de Bruyn and Gary Wilson have
led a fightback on Day One of the LVCC Division One match between Surrey and
Nottinghamshire at the KIA Oval.
Gareth Batty won the toss and once again elected to bat.
There was one change from the side that drew with Somerset last week, and that
was Tim Linley coming in for Jon Lewis. That meant that Gary Wilson kept his
place behind the stumps ahead of the returning Steve Davies.
Burns and Ansari struggled early on, and it was the
latter who was out first, when on 3 he edged Phillips to Mullaney. Burns began
to look more fluent at the crease, until he was caught off Gurney for 23 to
reduce us to 30-2. That brought the centurions from last week, Arun Harinath
and Kevin Pietersen. together at the crease, but they weren’t together long, as
Harinath was bowled to give Gurney a second wicket.
As it had done in recent games, the KIA Oval strip was
giving assistance to the seam bowlers, and the man who seems to have got
hatfuls of wickets against us this year, Gurney, picked up his 3rd
having the dangerous Pietersen caught behind for 15. de Bruyn and Roy had a job
on their hands to rebuild the innings, batting out the 7 remaining overs to
take us to lunch on 72-4.
Straight after the break though, Roy was bowled as he
looked to pull the left arm spinner Graeme White for 20. A poor shot from Roy
in the circumstances, especially as he had got himself set at the crease. It
was slow going from then onwards, with de Bruyn and Wilson needing to take time
to rebuild the innings. They brought up the first 50 partnership of the match inside
23 overs, as the run rate hovered around 2.5 an over.
When Wilson began to up the rate slightly against the
spin of White and Sam Wood, Gurney returned to the attack, and the runs stymied
as the pair took us to tea on 155-5. Shortly after the break the hundred partnership
was brought up, as the pair both went past their half centuries; de Bruyn first
with his 4th of the season, followed by Wilson’s first of the
campaign.
However, with the partnership on 123 off 48.4 overs, de
Bruyn was trapped in front by White for 71. A valuable innings from the South
African, but it was just the wrong time to get out, as the new ball was taken
two balls later. And it did the trick in just its second over, when Fletcher
had the impressive Wilson LBW for 68, and the visitors were into the tail. A
priceless knock from Wilson, who has proven why Adams showed faith in him ahead
of the out of form Davies.
The skipper’s lean season with the bat continued as he
was caught behind for 8, and was quickly followed by Kartik without scoring. Meaker and Linley batted out the remaining overs of the day, to go to stumps on 242-9.
I think after we won the toss and elected to bat first,
Chris Read and his team would be the slightly happier side at the end of the
day, but after being 52-4 at one stage, Gareth Batty won’t be too disappointed.
Also, if the pitch is similar to the one we played Middlesex on a few weeks
ago, we may have already got a decent score and Batty just didn’t want to bat
last on a deteriorating pitch.
A couple of the batsman will be annoyed with the way they
got out, especially Jason Roy playing a poor pull shot, but Wilson and de Bruyn
can go away happy this evening, after they dug in and put on a potentially
match saving partnership. I’m especially happy for de Bruyn, who has worked so
hard to regain form, and time in the middle is just what he needed. I’m also
delighted for Wilson, who was by far our best batsman in the T20, and it is
good to see he has taken his chance in the last couple of games.
Tomorrow morning we will be hoping to get the further 8
runs for a second batting point, before getting amongst the visitors batsman,
and trying to gain a first innings lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment