After giving Warwickshire a generous target on the final
day, the inevitable has finally happened as Surrey have been beaten and
therefore relegated to Division Two of the County Championship.
Two wickets last night kept us in the game, but our
inability to produce the goods when opportunities arise has once again
condemned us to defeat and a place in the bottom two of Division One. We could
only manage 2 more wickets today, as a century from Ateeq Javid and half
century from Chris Woakes meant that the hosts won the game by 6 wickets.
When Rikki Clarke played on to Tim Linley, after Stuart
Meaker had earlier had Laurie Evans caught, with the score on 126-4, there was
still a big chance that we could force home the victory that we needed
desperately. But, as I’ve said, we failed to take any chances we’ve had. The
pitch was still good to bat on today, but to only claim 2 further wickets is a
poor showing, especially as a couple more would have got us into a rather long
tail with Jeetan Patel at number 8.
However, that wasn’t to be and to be honest, we do
deserve to go down. We haven’t been good enough when it matters this season and
have had far too many disastrous sessions, which, in Division One cricket, you
will struggle to get away with. The batting has failed all too often, with
plenty of innings where not one batsman took on the mantle and scored big. Our
bowling attack looks good on paper, but realistically in 4 day cricket it isn’t
as potent as many think. Tremlett has been poor, Meaker missed most of the
season due to inury, Linley has done what Linley does well but nothing too
dramatic and Jade has been really inconsistent when selected.
So, where do we go from here? I will discuss this in more
detail when I do an end of season review, but I might as well touch on it now. Many
think that Division Two will do us good as it will allow us to play our
youngsters, the likes of Sibley, Curran, Edwards, Dunn etc in an environment
which doesn’t have the pressure of relegation. It will hopefully allow them to
learn more about their own game, develop it and become better cricketers in the
long term, rather than having that pressure constantly on their backs every
time they step on the field.
I believe this squad is undoubtedly better than when we
last went down in 2008, but there is a lot to be worked on. The opening partnership
between Burns and Smith didn’t last long this year and Burns and Harinath
personally faded away quite considerably towards the end of the year after good
starts for them both. I would still stick with Burns at the top, but Harinath
is one who has been given plenty of chances over the last few years, so I do
wonder what will happen with him.
It was announced today that Zander de Bruyn has been
released, so even though he didn’t perform this season, he needs to be replaced
as well as bringing in at least two more batsmen/batting all-rounders to
bolster that side of the game. That does of course come down to whether Jason
Roy stays at the club. I personally would give him chance at number 5 or 6 in
Division Two and allow him to learn how to play 4 day cricket, because he has
the talent without question.
It was also announced today that Chris Tremlett and
Gareth Batty had been given 1 and 2 year contract extensions respectively. That
was a surprise to me to be honest, as both have been poor this season and I
would much rather see our young bowlers be given a go ahead of them both when
it comes to Division Two cricket and trying to rebuild a squad. Graeme Smith
looks like he will be available for most of the 2014 season, so Batty won’t be
needed as captain as much, meaning his place in the side won’t be definite
anyway.
There are lots of things to discuss and as I said, I will
do so more in a couple of weeks or so. But, the bottom line of it is that,
despite the fight and commitment put in by the squad, we just weren’t up to the
standard of Division One cricket.
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