Not that there’s much resemblance between the skipper and the A-Team’s Hannibal Smith, but I bet he was thinking much the same thing as Surrey walked off the field of play at the end of the CB40 game against Lancashire. Whilst Surrey have not been doing terribly well in the championship - a current tally of zero wins so far this season, a whole zero more than last season - their form in the CB40 games has been rather splendid! If Friday’s contest showed Surrey could dig themselves out of any fix (like BA Baracus creating an armoured tank from a garage full of paint pots and a few sheets of corrugated iron), today’s display was as silky smooth as one of Dirk Benedict’s shirts.
There the A-Team similarities end, unless Gary Wilson needs his cheese burger doped before they get him onto a plane...
Yesterday I complained that Surrey had a tendency to collapse when Ramps got out, but the problem didn’t arise at all today as the main man was rested (or according to Bumble because he had a slight groin strain). On paper – and with Jimmy Anderson back to bolster an already fine Lancashire side – you’d have thought Surrey would have had their work cut out. Even as an annoying optimist I found myself settling down to listen to what I anticipated would be an enormous drubbing.
I do love being wrong sometimes!
But for a large partnership in the middle of the Lancashire innings care of Sutton and Chilton, Surrey’s opponents never really got going, and this wasn’t so much the batsmen playing badly but the Surrey bowlers repeatedly hitting their mark again and again. Each one of them had a fantastic game but by and large I would just give the nod to Dernbach as pick of the bunch. If he can keep this consistency up in the championship games he is going to be a real handful. In total he claimed three wickets, as did Andre Nel, with two for Tremlett as well. Lancashire were all bowled out for 165, a total that was never going to be enough barring a huge collapse.
Mind you, Surrey has been prone to the odd collapse. Fortunately there was none of that today, as the opening partnership of RHB and Steven Davies came in, kept their heads down and then slowly upped the tempo, with Davies in particular sounding very relaxed and majestic with the bat. It’s not often that Surrey and their fans can sit back and tick the overs away, safe in the knowledge that it was almost impossible to lose the game. It was all finished by the time 23.5 overs had been reached: little short of an absolute massacre! RHB had made 65, and Davies was 85 not out at the close, with Evans out for a rather uncomfortable 3 runs. Afzaal was also not out on 7 at the end of the game.
So, today’s spectacularly uncomplicated, almost clinical victory keeps Surrey second at the top of the table one point behind Somerset. The Unicorns appear to have beaten Sussex as well, which is useful from a Surrey point of view. However, just when you would expect to be able to take all that momentum and energy into the next CB40 game, a quick look at the schedule tells you that Surrey don’t have another game in the competition until July! Is it wrong to scratch my head in bewilderment at this point?
What the schedule does reveal is:
Surrey have a lot of travelling to do.
Surrey have a lot of championship games to play.
Surrey are going to be absolutely knackered by the time they next play a CB40 game, as they have to play for 18 out of the next 22 days!
Hopefully at least the two wins in the CB40 will at least inspire Surrey in terms of confidence. Schoey can do a job with bat and ball, Davies is in tip-top form with the bat as well as tidy behind the stumps, RHB can score quickly, and Ramps and Afzaal have both regained their form in the last few games. With the bowlers beginning to fire, it will surely all come together for Surrey.
Will tomorrow be the day?
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