Surrey have beaten Glamorgan by 96 runs in the CB40, to keep their chances of qualification to the knockout stages a possibility.
The afternoon started off with a lap of appreciation for the 40 or so cyclists who took part in the ride to raise money for the Tom Maynard trust. A brilliant effort from them, with Tom's dad Matthew leading the peloton onto the outfield. After a minutes applause in memory of Tom, the cricket was ready start, as Batty won the toss and elected to bat.
Davies could only last until the second over when he played onto Wagg, but RHB was looking much better until he reached 28 when he gloved a short ball through to Wallace. A promising innings from the former skipper, showing glimpses of the RHB Surrey supporters know well.
Roy's poor season in this form continued as he was caught and bowled off a Simon Jones slower ball. KP was looking ominous until Simon Jones bowled him with a wonderful swinging delivery on 42, to reduce us to 4 down for less than 100.
Spriegel and de Bruyn recovered the innings a little until de Bruyn was caught behind, but Spriegs and Ansari put together the biggest partnership of the innings to make sure we would post a respectable total. Ansari, Batty and Kartik fell quickly after one another, before Spriegel went to his first 50 of the competition this season. Once again a good, and much needed innings from the left hander.
Thanks to a few lusty blows from Meaker (21*) we managed to get to 219, but at the half time break it was felt to be 20 or 30 short.
Meaker was back in the action in the Glamorgan innings, when he bowled Wallace in the second over of their reply. It was the paceman's 50th wicket for us in all competitions this season. Allenby was then caught by Meaker off Spriegel in the deep to reduce the visitors to 10-2. After a dangerous looking knock from Chris Cooke, he was run out by KP after being sent back by Rees.
Rees and former Surrey batsman Stewart Walters then fell in successive overs, with Kartik and Batty picking up one each, as the Dragons were faltering on 61-5 in the 15th. It got better for us in Batty's next over, when Brown swept him behind square and Zafar Ansari took a stunning catch on the edge of the circle. This time it was Batty who had gone to his 50th wicket in all comps this season.
The last recognised batsman in the Glamorgan line up, Marcus North, was bowled by a ball that kept low to give the skipper his 3rd wicket of the night. Dernbach then had Harris caught down the legside and after a quick partnership between Cosker and Wagg, Ansari and Spriegel picked up one each and we had won by 96 runs.
An emphatic and very satisfying victory on an emotional night for the players and supporters of both teams, and we have kept alive our hopes of qualifying for the Semi Finals. Spriegel was once again the stand out player, playing a hugely important and mature innings in the context of the game. He really is becoming a star player in our List A line up.
Ansari once again batted well, and it is great to see Hamilton-Brown getting some runs once again. Roy and Davies would have been disappointed to get out the way they did, and before he got out, KP looked very good, and if we have him for the rest of the season, it would be a massive help.
So we did what we had to do tonight, which was win, and we now have to beat Somerset a week on Saturday and hope Durham beat Hampshire.
Tonight's game was a tribute to Tom, and we didn't disappoint, as we put in a performance that he would have been proud of.
