Jason Roy: The Lion King

201-4.

You have to agree, that looks a lot healthier than the scores in the first two Surrey games! I'm reminded of the Pink Panther films at this point, with Inspector Dreyfuss repeatedly chanting "every day and in every way, I'm getting better and better." Of course, the character went completely round the twist, but it could nonetheless be Surrey's new motto. The team's bowling has on the whole been really good this T20, whilst the batting has been (literally) a bit hit and miss. But there are green shoots of recovery beginning to sprout in the batting department - specifically in the form of Jason Roy.

There are still some problem areas, but then I guess nobody's perfect. The skipper does only seem to have one way of playing: eyes shut and at full throttle. Sometimes it works and takes the game away from the opposition very quickly. Sometimes, like today, he gets out for 6 playing a very silly shot. Fortunately, in the last few games one of the biggest plus points is that when one opener goes for a low score the other now kicks on. In my opinion this is the real difference in the considereably larger Surrey totals of late. Of course, it helps to win the toss as well, like today!

Jason Roy threatened to show his potential last night: today he did just that. 101 not out, and only 19 years of age! Today must have been very special for him, and if you were to take away his 101, the score looks ever so slightly poor! That's not to say that there weren't contributions from others: Davies once again posted a worthy score, falling 8 short of a half century. And Symonds also contributed at exactly the right time, chipping in with 31 before being caught and bowled.

If Surrey have a tiny weak link in the batting at the moment I would hesitate to suggest it might be Younus Khan. Apart from sharing in the winning stand with Ramps a few weeks back, he hasn't really contributed consistantly with the bat. He is a classy player, no mistake, but he doesn't really seem to have clicked. I am a touch biased, but I would be tempted to bring Ramps back in the side and replace Younus with him, unless of course Mr R is carrying some kind of injury we haven't been told about.

Walters was 2 not out at the end, but Jason Roy had already taken Kent to the cleaners.

In reply Kent got off to the worst possible start. Rob Key, the pink faced cherub of county cricket, went for a duck. Then to make matters worse Geraint Jones fell for 5 shortly afterwards, and gun man Stevens made only 7. My old favourite Azhar Mahmood put on a bit of a charge, finding the boundary regularly before chancing his hand too many times, being caught by Schofield for 34.

Whilst Van Jaarsveld remained in there was always a chance, but poor Blake managed to get stuck on strike an awful lot and a flurry of dot balls resulted, breaking the rhythm of the Kent innings. Single handedly Van Jaarsveld kept the game alight, a mark of a great batsman if ever there was one. But finally he went for 82, and when Blake followed shortly afterwards for 14 it was pretty much game over. Tredwell contributed 6 but went in the last over, and Coles was stumped off the last ball of the game, also for 6. Northeast was the man not out on 5 at the end, but it didn't matter as the game resulted in an emphatic victory for Surrey in what was possibly their best T20 game so far in the contest.

Symonds picked up a fivefer in the bowling stakes, but the day belonged fully to Jason Roy: first Surrey batsman to make a T20 hundred! I hope we see lots more of him in the T20. Something tells me we will! Although I'm worried this means Ramps is going to be totally sidelined from the team, which would sadden me greatly.