The Surrey bowlers have put their side into a fantastic
position heading into the 3rd day of the London Derby at Lord’s.
3-59 from Jade Dernbach and two vital wickets from Zander
de Bruyn really got us on our way, as we restricted the hosts to 161-9 at
stumps, trailing our first innings score by 177.
Starting the morning on 267-4, 400 was felt to be a
minimum on a rather placid pitch. However, the first session couldn’t have gone
any worse for us. Davies was removed for 24 with an in-swinger from Murtagh
which cannoned into his pads. De Bruyn was joined by Gary Wilson and took us to
a third batting point, but the run rate was relatively low as we struggled to
score fluently. And after de Bruyn was caught behind off a superb rising
delivery from Roland-Jones for 34, the tail collapsed, as we were bowled out
for 338, Wilson unbeaten on 30.
After a tight opening spell from Dernbach and Tremlett,
de Bruyn made the breakthrough when Rogers drove at a wide ball and played on
for 21. Sam Robson and Joe Denly started to up the run rate, and took a
particular liking to Dernbach who was going at 5 an over; vastly different to
the other bowlers so far in the game. However, Dernbach managed to beat the bat
of Denly and had him LBW, before golden arm Gareth Batty had Dawid Malan also
LBW with the off spinner’s first ball, as Middlesex went to tea on 92-3.
In the first over after tea, de Bruyn had the dogged
Robson caught behind, as Surrey started to turn the screw. Dexter and Simpson
attempted to rebuild the innings, but they struggled to score quickly, and when
Dernbach had Dexter caught by Solanki, and had Paul Stirling LBW on his first
ball of Championship cricket, we were really on top. No hat trick for Jade, but
he had Middlesex reduced to 121-6.
A poor shot from Simpson then gave Batty his second
wicket, and Tremlett then had Roland-Jones caught and bowled for his first
wicket of the day. They looked as if they would only (!) go to the close 8
down, but in the penultimate over, Linley removed Finn to cap off a great day,
and a top session which included 6 wickets.
If you would have said to me that we would have them 8
down by the close at lunchtime, I would have thought you were crazy. But it
shows that the pitch isn’t as dead as we all thought it was yesterday, and
shows how well the likes of Harinath, and especially Burns, played in that
morning session.
Maybe I’m being slightly greedy, but I would have liked
it if we could have rolled them over tonight, but you can’t have everything I
suppose. They need 28 to avoid the follow on, and if we were to get the final
wicket before they reached 189, I would bat again. The pitch isn’t going to get
any better, and if we enforced the follow on, and they somehow got a lead of
say, 150, then it will be a very difficult run chase (remember last year!).
No comments:
Post a Comment