Cometh the hour...

Yay! We won!

And not only did we win but we did it against a Somerset side that boasted the likes of Trescothick, de Bruyn, Pollard and Hildreth!

And the Surrey bowling was very good again!

And Ramps was man of the match! Hurrah!

What, you’re expecting a more coherent match report than that? Seriously???

Well, okay...it has to be said that it didn’t start terribly well for Surrey, but that’s been pretty normal so far in this competition. The skipper hit 6 and promptly get out, and then for some reason I don’t quite understand (although I’m sure there must have been some logical reason for it) Batty came in at three – and then went without scoring. I don’t think that was part of the Surrey master plan, or indeed imagine it was in Gareth Batty’s mind either. Davies managed a useful 16 but once more didn’t quite get over 20. And then Symonds went for 6 as well.

Things were pretty dicey at that stage, and I guess given recent past history you would have had your money on Surrey posting yet another miniscule total and Somerset romping home. But cometh the hour, cometh the, er...men. Younus Khan and Ramprakash quickly bedded in, and began to crank the tempo up. The fact that Ramps made 59 – hitting the first Surrey sixes in the contest – before being bowled, and Younus also made 59 just showed how in tune they both were! There was some very nice cricket played by both sides, with Somerset constantly mixing and changing the bowling to keep the Surrey batsman on their toes.

Unfortunately, Ramps was literally kept on his toes when he got struck by a ball, although it didn’t seem to slow his running between the wickets overly. Hopefully it won’t prevent him playing tomorrow...I have the feeling Surrey will need him.

Schofield came on and was bowled for 4, whilst Spriegel remained 1 not out at the end.

I have to confess when Trescothick hit a boundary with his first ball, a small part of me thought “oh lord, he we go...” and yet at the same time I remained quietly confident. Rampant prayers were offered for his early dismissal. And lo: he went for 4! And then we crossed our fingers and begged the almighty to kindly remove Kieswetter. And once more our prayers were answered when Kieswetter fell for 6! Was it chancing our luck to ask for the wicket of de Bruyn???

This time the good lord made us wait a little before de Bruyn was dispatched off the bowling of Symonds. But hey, the best things in life are worth waiting for, aren’t they?

Jean wondered if we were pushing our luck in asking for the metaphorical head of Pollard. It nearly worked...within a minute of typing the request Nel nearly got finger tips to a ball sent in his direction by Pollard. Gah! So near and yet so far!

Oh well! In the end it didn’t matter. Surrey had earlier posted a somewhat below par score, but a defendable one nonetheless. With the bowlers once more working their magic, building on their great performance in the previous game, Somerset were restricted considerably in their chase even although Pollard (42) and Hildreth (54) very nearly replicated what Younus and Ramps did for Surrey. But when Pollard fell there was just too much for Somerset to do. Trego was run out for 3, Buttler never got going on 1, Phillips was run out for 2 and Thomas fell for 4. At the end the Somerset total was 139 for 8.

Big, huge kudos to Surrey for doing what we know they can do. I hope this is the springboard they need in order to go on and do well in the contest. The bowlers are all doing fantastically well, and if the batting were to fire – as Younus and Ramps did today – there’s no reason why they cannot successfully take on any team in the competition and get a favourable result. You feel Symonds is due a big score sometime soon: he certainly seems pretty special in the field. Maybe this result will stop the press banging on about the team not looking ‘together’ as a unit.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed the Ramprakash metatarsal recovers quickly. I’ve never offered up a prayer for a cricketer’s body part before. Might as well do the same for Michael Brown’s elbow and Chris Jordan’s spine whilst I’m at it.

Why not indeed? After all, the good lord got us some wickets when requested!

And now to celebrate, ladies and gents, here follows a rendition of the Surrey Song of victory!

#We are the Lions, hear us roar!
We've won a game and we want more!
It's been a while; we've been so rotten,
So much, our song has been forgotten!

The words are gone, we can't recall
The lyrics or the tune at all!
We don't know, we'll just pretend
That there's a rude bit at the end!#