Finals Day awaits for Surrey

Finals Day is almost upon us and a 14 man squad has been named for our Semi Final against the Hampshire Royals, with Glenn Maxwell returning to the fold.

We are overwhelming underdogs heading into tomorrow as we come up against winners of two of the last 3 English T20 competitions and a side who have only lost once so far in this year’s competition. However, anything can happen in Twenty20, and we could well find ourselves champions come 10pm tomorrow evening.

Here is the squad that has been selected and probable line up:

Jason Roy

Steve Davies

Vikram Solanki (C)

Glenn Maxwell

Gary Wilson

Azhar Mahmood

Zafar Ansari

Zander de Bruyn

Jon Lewis

Chris Tremlett

Jade Dernbach

Tim Linley

Tom Curran

Rory Burns

That is how I see the team shaping up and it is probably what I, and many Surrey fans, would select. Some would argue that after Rory Burns’ recent performances with the bat in List A cricket and Tom Curran’s effort with the ball that they should be selected, but to pick such inexperienced T20 players for a massive game like a Semi Final is a big gamble, and something that won’t happen unless an injury occurs.

I sound like a broken record when I say that the batting hasn’t really fired in the competition, but it really hasn’t. Our top scorer, Jason Roy, has 272 runs in the tournament, well over 200 less than Hampshire’s top scorer Michael Carberry (496). Hampshire have hit 8 half centuries and 1 century compared to our 5 50’s and zero 100’s in the 11 matches so far. But there is the argument that Hampshire are over reliant on Carberry at the top of the order and if he doesn’t fire, they may struggle.

In some regards that is the case. He has hit 4 of their half centuries and of course that superb hundred against Lancashire last week in the quarter final, so if you get him out early you have a far better chance of victory. Don’t underestimate their other batsmen though. James Vince, who has played a couple of explosive innings Live on Sky of recent weeks, has had a relatively poor competition from his standards with just 256 runs, but we all know what he can do. Neil McKenzie has quietly gone about his business this year, hitting 296 runs in just 7 innings, showing that he has still got what it takes and Sean Ervine and Liam Dawson showed what they could do last night.

Whatever happens, Hampshire will have quality batsmen for our bowlers to deal with and will be able to post a competitive score or chase a competitive total if required. Therefore our batsmen need to step up and produce the goods. Despite being our top scorer, only 1 50 from Roy is not good enough in 11 matches, so surely he is due a big one tomorrow. Davies has hit a couple of typical Davies innings but has all too frequently got out early playing innocuous shots, almost throwing his wickets away. Whatever people say about how well Wilson and co have done getting us out of trouble in those middle overs, Davies and Roy are our quickest scorers and if either of those bat 15+ overs, then we are in for a great score. If not, then we may struggle to set up a score, or chase what Hampshire put in front of us.

There is the million dollar man though, who has found some form for Australia A over the last few weeks. He hit 155 in a First Class game before a 145* off 79 balls and 93 off 56 balls in a couple of One day games. After only scoring 87 from his 6 innings for us in the group stage, let’s hope that he can continue in that vein and pull off an innings against his old team tomorrow.

When it comes to the bowlers, I don’t think that there are many better attacks than ours in the country. However, without Batty we are seriously depleted as he fires the team up when they are having a bad few overs and gets his fair share of wickets too. Our other spinners, Ansari and Maxwell, don’t pick up wickets as regular and go for far more runs per over than Batty. However, with Jade, Azhar, Trem and Lewis, we have 4 very experienced bowlers who will be trying their upmost to lead us to victory, as it is unlikely that 3 of them will play at Finals Day again in their careers.

A key battle will be between Carberry and Dernbach, but I would be inclined to open with spin against Carberry to try and prize him out early. Another interesting battle will be between Roy and Dimi Mascarenhas, with Roy hitting him to all parts at the Oval a few weeks ago before Dimi bowled him with a slower delivery.

Whatever happens, we have done extremely well to get to Finals Day, but we can’t head into tomorrow with that attitude or we will come away with nothing. We have to use our underdog status to our advantage, with most of the pressure on the Royals, and put in a performance to make themselves and our travelling support proud.

Good lucks lads, and bring home the trophy.

Surrey aim for Finals Day

This is the first time we have been in a Twenty20 quarter final since 2006, so it is without doubt our biggest game in the competition since then. On that occasion we heavily beat Gloucestershire at Bristol before falling at the Semi Final stage against Notts. In fact, we have never lost a T20 quarter final in the 4 times we have managed to reach one, qualifying for Finals Day on each occasion. That must be a good omen, yes?

Well let’s hope so and with the squad of players that we have, I believe we have the ability to produce a performance to beat any opposition on their day. How often that performance comes around though is the big question. In 2 of our last 3 games we demolished both Middlesex and Essex by posting a decent score before allowing our bowlers to roll the opposition over. Oh how much I would love that again tonight!

Here is our squad to play Somerset:

Gareth Batty (C)

Steve Davies

Jason Roy

Vikram Solanki

Gary Wilson

Zafar Ansari

Azhar Mahmood

Zander de Bruyn

Jon Lewis

Chris Tremlett

Jade Dernbach

Rory Burns

Tom Curran

Tim Linley

Coincidently there is only player in the squad for tonight who played in our last quarter final, Azhar Mahmood, and he could be a key man with both bat and ball as he has shown over the years. This could be his last game for us if we lose, I don’t know the arrangements of whether he will stay for the YB40 of next year’s T20, so he will want to make sure that isn’t the case and put in a starring role tonight. In this year’s competition he has either bowled or batted well in each match but has struggled to put the two together, so hopefully tonight is the night.

 

I think it is about time we had a big score from a batsman, an 80 or a 90 to set up a large total, and hopefully that can come from either Jason Roy or Steve Davies. If either of those two bat the majority of an innings then Surrey fans know that we would be in a great position to win the game, but that has been an all too infrequent occurrence this season. Davies has a

couple of half centuries, with Roy getting just 1 from 10 innings, and as a pair they haven’t batted long periods of time together with at least one of them getting out in the early stages. If that can change then we have a great chance tonight.

However, if they fail then once again we have to rely on the likes of Gary Wilson and Zafar Ansari, who have done a splendid job at times in the competition. Wilson is such an experienced T20 player and is very much underrated by some Surrey fans and county followers. Also Ansari’s partnership with Azhar at Kent was so vital, because we may not be in this situation if that didn’t occur.

I don’t worry about our bowlers anywhere near like I do with the batsmen, because they have shown that when given a reasonable total defend, they can do it. Jade, Trem, Azhar and Lewis have wealth’s of

experience and T20 nous, supported by de Bruyn who has had a good competition and Batty and Ansari in the spin attack. I doubt that there are many better bowling attacks than ours in the competition.

However, it’s not just bowling where you win T20 games, with our opposition tonight looking frighteningly good in all facets. They have a possible top 6 of Trescothick, Kieswetter, Trego, Petersen, Hildreth, Buttler who are all capable of producing innings of the most explosive kind. If we bat first we must score a total of at least over 160, because anything lower will be knocked off by Somerset, as at least one or two of that top 6 will produce.

So then, just a few hours to wait for this huge game. We’ve done well to get this far and let’s hope we can put in a performance that the guys and fans will be proud of. If we put in a strong performance and still lose it will be disappointing, but there would be plenty of positives to take than if we lost heavily.

Good luck guys and show us what you’ve got. Come on the Rey!!!

Where do we go now in the T20?

With just 3 games remaining (hopefully not!) in this year’s Friends Life T20, I thought that I would write a blogpost on where we are at the moment, and how we should rediscover the form we showed pre-Nottinghamshire game.

With 4 wins out of 5, we certainly looked in a great position to qualify for the quarter finals for the first time since 2006, with 3 wins needed to all but seal our place. However, 2 games later we still sit on 8 points, now requiring a victory in our final 3 games to have a realistic chance of going through.

So what’s been going wrong in the last couple of games? Well, I don’t think you can look too far past the batting efforts that we have put in those games. We haven’t performed with the bat at all in the competition so far, but I felt the Essex and Hampshire defeats this week were particularly poor. Before the mid-competition break, which I personally feel didn’t help at all, the bowlers won us the game in at least 3 of the 4 victories we acquired, with Kent the one exception, but we cannot keep relying on them to pull us out of the mire.

Hampshire and Essex both have very strong batting line ups, both better than their bowling in my opinion, and will chase down modest totals which we set them. In both of the games last week the bowlers didn’t do a bad job, but were not helped by inept performances from most of the batsmen. Ponting did well in the Essex game, but apart from that there was no one who hit a score of substance in either of the games.

As has been mentioned previously we rely a lot on our openers, usually Jason Roy and Steve Davies, in limited overs cricket and if they don’t fire, then we struggle to post decent scores. You can’t really argue with that in my opinion as the one time one of those two really fired in this year’s competition was when Davies hit an unbeaten 90-odd against Kent, our highest team total in the tournament. However, apart from that innings, Davies has been very disappointing in the games that he has played, often getting out in an innocuous fashion and not even making a decent start, let alone a big innings.

Jason Roy at times has looked the world’s best batsmen at the crease, especially with shots such as the reverse sweep for 6 off Dimi Mascarenhas, but he has also failed to make a large impact. He has had a  better time of it than Davies, but he would be annoyed at the way he gets out sometimes, especially after he took 10 off of Mascarenhas’ first two balls in an over before being bowled looking for another big hit next ball. Alec Stewart and most Surrey fans will know that Davies and Roy are our two gun players in this competition, and if they don’t find form, we will struggle.

We shouldn’t have to rely on two players however, but the others have failed to apply themselves to the situation in front of them. Ponting has had one good game, Maxwell didn’t really have any, Mahmood has been a real disappointment after the form he showed in the IPL and Ansari has also been a tad frustrating at times. Gary Wilson obviously has been invaluable at times, and got us to competitive totals, but he won’t blast you to victory with his style of batting I don’t think.

So what’s got to change? I would make several changes to the team/ batting order. I would stick with the top 3 because they are our best 3 and should stay there. Azhar shouldn’t really be batting in the top 7 I don’t think, and either Burns or Solanki should be brought into the middle order to firm it up. De Bruyn should be taken out of the side because I don’t think his bowling warrants a place in the team, and either Tom Jewell or Tom Curran should be given a go down at 8. Jon Lewis shouldn’t be playing as his little medium pace dobbers have been played relatively easily of recent times, and Tremlett should be backed to perform in this format.

Other than that, there aren’t many other changes I would make to the team because there aren’t many other options pure and simply! I knew at the beginning of the season we were a batsmen or two light, and when the ones you do have hit a bad run of form, it puts you in a spot of bother.

So, overall, to win our final 3 games we must post better scores. Two of our 3 games are away from the Oval, at Lord’s and Chelmsford where the boundaries are relatively small, so hopefully we can use that as an advantage and produce the goods when it matters.

Can we go back to playing T20, please?

I never thought that I would say this, but I would much prefer us to be playing T20 than the County Championship at the moment, after another very poor day for us.

Despite half centuries from Rory Burns and Steve Davies, we were knocked over for just 198 and then failed to pick up a wicket with Notts closing day one on 50-0.

With the sun beating down and without a cloud in the sky, Gareth Batty had no hesitation in batting first when he won the flip of the coin. Team news was that Rory Burns was fit enough to play, which meant that, alongside Tim Linley, Dominic Sibley missed out.

Burns started positively as he worked Harry Gurney for 4 in the first over, but lost his opening partner when Arun Harinath edged to Samit Patel at slip. Burns continued to play an array of stunning shots, especially straight down the ground, but the other batsmen weren't as comfortable as the Banstead 'keeper, as Vikram Solanki fell to an in-swinging Andre Adams delivery for 7.

That wicket brought Ricky Ponting to the crease on his final first class game, and he and Burns had a rebuilding job to do. Burns moved to another Championship half century with a flick off Gurney, but in yet again the last over of a session we lost a wicket, when Burns could only tickle a leg side ball to Read behind the stumps. A disappointing way to end a very good 57 from Burns, and Notts were very happy with us going to lunch 3 down for 93.

And they would have been cock-a-hoop when Ponting edged onto his pad and into the hands of short leg on 29 just after the break. Zander De Bruyn managed to work his way to 16 until he flashed at Shahzad and was caught behind, leaving Steven Davies and Zafar Ansari with a big job on their hands. Davies played in his typically fluent manner, but Ansari struggled to tick the score along and in the penultimate over before tea (!) he firmly pushed Graeme White to Rikki Wessels at short leg and he held on at the second attempt. 175-6 read a very poor picture after choosing to bat.

It didn't get much better after tea as the last 4 wickets fell for just 23 runs, with the last 4 batsmen all registering ducks. Davies was the only one to put up a fight, as he was stranded on a very well made 65. 18 fruitless overs were to follow, where Wessels and Steven Mullaney made batting look far easier than we did, as the closed less than 150 behind with all their first innings wickets still intact. 

So after the joys of the last week or so in the T20, any thoughts of transferring that form and confidence into the Championship seem to have been distinguished. It often happens after some T20's that a side gets rolled over easily when they return to 4 day cricket, but the way the batsmen performed today, they can have no excuses.

Burns and Davies were the only two who seemed to adjust to the apparent very good conditions to bat in, with the others getting out to some rather poor shots or some very good bowling and fielding from Notts. Burns' wicket was key as he was looking better than ever today, but the others need to take a look at themselves.

We won an important toss but failed to capitalise, and if we can't find some wickets in the morning session tomorrow, we could be in for a very long couple of days indeed. 

Sibley may make debut in Ponting's last game

As one of the great batsmen of all time plays his final First Class game, a 17 year old prodigy has a chance of making his debut in the County Championship match against Nottinghamshire this week.

Ricky Ponting first played a First Class game back in 1992, 3 years before Dominic Sibley was born, and after 288 games, with almost 24,000 runs, Punter is bowing out of the game. Sibley, born in 1995, was just 3 months old when Ponting made his test match debut and now has the chance to play with a batsman that he grew up watching.

Here is the squad in full:

Gareth Batty (C)

Arun Harinath

Rory Burns

Vikram Solanki

Ricky Ponting

Zander de Bruyn

Steve Davies

Zafar Ansari

Dominic Sibley

Chris Tremlett

Jade Dernbach

Tim Linley

Gary Keedy

It’s not a certainty that Sibley will get a debut, however, as that rests on the shoulders of whether Rory Burns is fit enough after a hamstring injury he sustained in a second X1 match last week. Burns retired hurt and later wrote in his column for the Surrey Mirror that he had torn his hamstring, but I think if that was the case he would be out for a while, so hopefully he only tweaked it. We obviously need a win in the Championship and we want our best players available for the game, but if Burns wasn’t to make it, then it will be some occasion for Sibley.

The Ashtead CC opener is a graduate of the Pemberton Greenish Academy and doesn’t turn 18 until the 5^th of September, the same birthday as a certain Mark Ramprakash, and has been talked about for a while. I first head of Sibley a couple of years ago when, at 15, he struck a double century in a Surrey Premier Division match against bowlers such as Jimmy Ormond, and since then I have been waiting to see him come into the side. It would be great to see him play tomorrow, but if he doesn’t, the experience for him would be vital for when he eventually does get a go.

What can I say about a man who is 21 years older than Sibley? Ponting will go down as one of the greats and it is a privilege that his last First Class match will be for Surrey at the Oval. He hasn’t had the best of times at our ground, obviously losing the Ashes in both 2005 and 2009 there, but hopefully he will bow out by providing us with one more superb innings. He will carry on to play in the T20 for us and in the Caribbean T20 in August, but this is the format that made Ponting who he is today.

When it comes to the bowlers named in the squad, there is a bit of a selection headache for Stewart and Barnes. 3 seamers plus de Bruyn have been named in the squad and two spinners plus Ansari, so there are plenty of options. Notts’ attack is much reliant on their seamers so I would presume that the groundsman would be told to try and produce a turning wicket, which may mean that Keedy, who took a 7-fer in his last game, will play alongside Batty. Another option is to not play Keedy and have Ansari and Batty as the two spinners and therefore play Trem, Jade and the Viscount. I’m not sure which way they are going to go.

So this is a massive game for us as we still look for our first win of the season. However, we have won 4 in a row in the FLT20 which could only prove beneficial for us when it comes to the Championship, because when you get that winning feeling, you don’t want to give it up easily.