I think that particular number from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang should really be Surrey's theme song this year!
Poor old Somerset. Dragged to the sacred altar of success and then unceremoniously and publicly jilted at the very last moment. You could say they’ve had the devil’s own luck in the last few years, given the amount of finals they’ve reached to the ratio of finals they’ve won (which is, er, zero) but I’m not so sure luck had anything to do with Surrey’s victory over them yesterday. From the reports I’ve been given, it seems as if a long and exhausting campaign had taken its toll on the Cidermen. No doubt tired and a bit wary given their habit of coming unstuck at the final hurdle, Somerset sounded as if they were disadvantaged going in to the Lords game simply by carrying that burden of recent history on their shoulders.
Surrey, on the other hand, were sharp and generally speaking fielded well (don’t mention Schoey to the Somerset supporters though). When it came to batting they were almost too much on their toes! Zander de Bruyn in particular reminded me of my first cat whenever a particularly vindictive flea decided to sink its mouthparts into his hide, given his uncharacteristic skittishness! Just goes to show that even wise old heads can sometimes give way to the big occasion!
I guess whilst I’m praising Surrey for their win, I should also praise Somerset for getting to the final. I hope that doesn’t sound patronising because it isn’t meant to be. Whilst their supporters will be raising their eyes heavenwards and wondering what the heck they have to do to bring home the silverware once again, just to reach so many different finals shows a tremendous amount of depth in skill, not to mention consistency. I guess that isn’t much of a consolation to Marcus Trescothick, who valiantly batted despite an ongoing injury ankle. Somerset may have, with the exception of young Buttler, appeared lacklustre and fatigued but it sounds to me as if they were simply turned over by a better side on the day, motivated and buoyed by their recent winning streak.
Praise also has to go to the skipper. I said last year he was a fast learner and that is exactly what he is. He’s shown a great deal of maturity in the way he has marshalled his troops and he will go on learning. This may be the start of something great. His own knock of 70 plus showed how it should be done, and only the aforementioned J Buttler bettered it. Talking of Buttler, you can’t help admire his wonderful attempt to get Somerset over the line. It was a gallant and gutsy knock, and one that will have got him noticed by many. A one day career for England may be round the corner.
Jade Dernbach got man of the match. I think this wasn’t just for his fantastic spell of death bowling but also because the night before he’d been playing in the final England v India one day international match under the floodlights, and therefore had crawled away from the Swalec at some ungodly time and most likely arrived in London in the wee small hours of the morning. Most normal folks would have been stumbling about the place like an extra from Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ but credit to Jade, the man who removed the ‘tat’ from ‘tattoo’ and made looking like a walking doodle extremely cool. It’s been rather a good year for Dernbach, when all’s said and done.
And it’s been a rather good year for Surrey, too! Promoted, a bit of silverware in the trophy cabinet, an exciting future; at the moment things are looking rosy for the club. All positive thoughts to take into the 2012 season.
Question is, what the heck do I do until April?!?
Showing posts with label Marcus Trescothick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marcus Trescothick. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Here we go again!
So, here we are. The first championship game of the year is hurtling towards us like...a giant hurtling thing. I’ve been quite bursting with anticipation (not a pretty sight at the best of times) over the last few weeks for the start of the county championship, even although it feels pretty odd that Mr R won’t be fit to take to the field for some time yet. As a Surrey fan I am interested to see how the team do in his absence. As a Ramps fan it’s just a little weird...a bit like Destiny’s Child without Beyoncé.
That was a strange analogy! Anyhow, you know what I mean.
Surrey have already gone through their pre-season warm ups, and I think we have to accept that this is exactly what they are and basically not panic before the main event. It was lovely to see Michael Brown return, and equally magnificent to hear that Chris Jordan is back and bowling (not to mention taking wickets) for the team. I do think that Surrey need the maestro back as soon as possible, however, looking at the rather Ramprakash-sized gap in the middle order scores. People like Ramps – and let’s be honest, Dominic Cork, Robert Croft and Marcus Trescothick – are more than just run scorers or wicket takers. They are lucky charms and bring not only years of experience with them but have that bit of magic about them: the aura that belongs to the battle scarred veterans who cheat time, and hold the seasons at bay.
Surrey will be missing their chief lion for the first part of the season, but it needn’t all be doom and gloom. The show must go on, and fingers crossed by the time everyone is fit and firing Surrey will be winning games once again.
Best of luck, lads!
That was a strange analogy! Anyhow, you know what I mean.
Surrey have already gone through their pre-season warm ups, and I think we have to accept that this is exactly what they are and basically not panic before the main event. It was lovely to see Michael Brown return, and equally magnificent to hear that Chris Jordan is back and bowling (not to mention taking wickets) for the team. I do think that Surrey need the maestro back as soon as possible, however, looking at the rather Ramprakash-sized gap in the middle order scores. People like Ramps – and let’s be honest, Dominic Cork, Robert Croft and Marcus Trescothick – are more than just run scorers or wicket takers. They are lucky charms and bring not only years of experience with them but have that bit of magic about them: the aura that belongs to the battle scarred veterans who cheat time, and hold the seasons at bay.
Surrey will be missing their chief lion for the first part of the season, but it needn’t all be doom and gloom. The show must go on, and fingers crossed by the time everyone is fit and firing Surrey will be winning games once again.
Best of luck, lads!
Sunday, 29 August 2010
A view of the cockrell's bottom
It was always going to be a tough order to overcome a confident Somerset side, and so it proved to be in today’s CB40 game. The scorecard doesn’t tell the full story, but it does give an indication of the way the game twisted and turned.
Trescothick was potentially a huge threat but one that was surprisingly annulled with only 8 runs to his name, but in his place there came equally explosive and worthy batsmen: Kieswetter (who started like a train but finished like a speeding snail) hit 79 and even more impressively Buttler down the order made a match-winning 87. Du Bruyn has often been a nemesis for Surrey, and he chipped in with 54, contributing to a rather imposing 290 for six!
I looked at the score set by Somerset and mentioned to some of the listening Rampants that I was slightly concerned they were perhaps a batsman light and that:
“With it reduced to 36 overs they really could have done with the extra batting power, because if RHB or Davies go cheaply or Roy has a bad day, there's only Ramps left!”
Who’s a clever girl, then?
Unfortunately, the skipper made 0 today. Davies made 11 and Roy a 0, just to make the score board slightly symmetrical. And Ramps made 73.
That’s not to say that Kennington’s batting maestro was the only one who put in a good performance as Spriegel and Walters both got within touching distance of a half century, but again there was little backing up done by the lower order batters except from a cheeky and explosive 31 from Dernbach at the tail. It seems to me that if the top two fail to lay a reasonable foundation for the middle order Surrey really struggle. There’s an awful lot of pressure on Mark Ramprakash’s shoulders to bat the entire innings, and fair play to him: he gives it a pretty good go most days! But it’s also not fair on him.
I’m not going to say the selection was wrong: I don’t believe it’s my place to do so. However, I think I would have preferred Wilson in the team just to shore up the batting on what is a ground that usually sees runs galore.
Of course, Somerset had the game won pretty much from the moment that sizeable tally was posted. Poor Tremlett had a bit of a shocker with the ball today, leaking over 70 runs. He’s been so stupendous up until now: I really hope this doesn’t knock his new found confidence because he’s been a cracking acquisition for Surrey this season.
Some words of praise here for poor, frozen Mark Church; shivering away in the hut whilst he provided his usual splendid commentary. It was a gallant attempt to give us a flavour of a frustratingly stop-start game affected by the rain, punctuated by the occasional sniffle and creaking of vocal chords. If icicles could speak they would sound like Churchy did this evening. Somebody get him a well deserved shot of brandy! That was a radio performance beyond the call of duty: I was feeling cold just listening!
Trescothick was potentially a huge threat but one that was surprisingly annulled with only 8 runs to his name, but in his place there came equally explosive and worthy batsmen: Kieswetter (who started like a train but finished like a speeding snail) hit 79 and even more impressively Buttler down the order made a match-winning 87. Du Bruyn has often been a nemesis for Surrey, and he chipped in with 54, contributing to a rather imposing 290 for six!
I looked at the score set by Somerset and mentioned to some of the listening Rampants that I was slightly concerned they were perhaps a batsman light and that:
“With it reduced to 36 overs they really could have done with the extra batting power, because if RHB or Davies go cheaply or Roy has a bad day, there's only Ramps left!”
Who’s a clever girl, then?
Unfortunately, the skipper made 0 today. Davies made 11 and Roy a 0, just to make the score board slightly symmetrical. And Ramps made 73.
That’s not to say that Kennington’s batting maestro was the only one who put in a good performance as Spriegel and Walters both got within touching distance of a half century, but again there was little backing up done by the lower order batters except from a cheeky and explosive 31 from Dernbach at the tail. It seems to me that if the top two fail to lay a reasonable foundation for the middle order Surrey really struggle. There’s an awful lot of pressure on Mark Ramprakash’s shoulders to bat the entire innings, and fair play to him: he gives it a pretty good go most days! But it’s also not fair on him.
I’m not going to say the selection was wrong: I don’t believe it’s my place to do so. However, I think I would have preferred Wilson in the team just to shore up the batting on what is a ground that usually sees runs galore.
Of course, Somerset had the game won pretty much from the moment that sizeable tally was posted. Poor Tremlett had a bit of a shocker with the ball today, leaking over 70 runs. He’s been so stupendous up until now: I really hope this doesn’t knock his new found confidence because he’s been a cracking acquisition for Surrey this season.
Some words of praise here for poor, frozen Mark Church; shivering away in the hut whilst he provided his usual splendid commentary. It was a gallant attempt to give us a flavour of a frustratingly stop-start game affected by the rain, punctuated by the occasional sniffle and creaking of vocal chords. If icicles could speak they would sound like Churchy did this evening. Somebody get him a well deserved shot of brandy! That was a radio performance beyond the call of duty: I was feeling cold just listening!
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Terrific Trescothick tonks again!
Well, that wasn’t quite the performance that Surrey would have looked for on the return to the CB40 championship. Undone by the fast, furious and quickfire innings of one Marcus Trescothick, Surrey seemed unlikely to get near the rather ominous 304 posted by Somerset, although there was a brief passage in the Surrey reply where they were within touching distance.
I shan’t go into the whys and wherefores, except to say that Trescothick was his usual magnificent self with a score of 69. He could quite easily have gone on to have made a hundred the way he was playing, until he holed out to Dernbach. In many ways Mark Ramprakash’s innings mirrored Trescothick’s to a certain degree, in that it was looking quite easy for both batsmen at the time they got out. The greater loss today was Surrey’s, as Ramps’ wicket was pretty much the turning point in the game. Even although Spriegel kept batting carefully and beautifully, the momentum was gone. Ramps has the ability to turn up the heat in a matter of overs and crank it up a gear. Spriegel doesn’t yet have that ability, although he is developing a welcome ‘stickability’ at the wicket these days.
Credit to Hildreth and de Bruyn. Their killer partnership was what made the difference today, with de Bruyn out for 89 and Hildreth for 68. The Surrey bowlers were by and large a tad rusty although far from hopeless, and kept plugging away gamely. But I guess when you are making a return from a lengthy lay-off the last thing you want to see is Trescothick tonking you to all parts. That said, welcome back Dernbach and Linley: I hope you came through today without feeling any further strains or soreness. Kudos also to the Somerset bowlers, in particular Kartik who picked up Ramps, Walters (for a duck) and Schofield (for 8). This little spell of play really was the beginning of the end for Surrey.
Noteworthy performances came from Tremlett with his commendable 31, Spriegel with his hard-fought for 53, and Ramps with his 42. They were missing that huge partnership that Somerset put on. I think with such a big tally to chase they really felt the scoreboard pressure today, with Trescothick winning the toss and batting first, as most people do at the Oval. Then with RHB going early and Davies making only 25, Surrey really were on the back foot. Jason Roy looked like he was settling in when a rather unfortunate incident with Buttler on the boundary rope denied Ramps a 6, got Roy on to strike, and then resulted in him getting out next ball! Buttler swore he’d saved the ball from going over and I guess you have to trust the judgement of the fielder in these situations. It didn’t stop poor Buttler from being booed every time the ball went his way, but from the batsman’s point of view the rope is still there to be cleared. I doubt Roy could have had much room for complaint.
The game ended with the home side all out for 209. This is Surrey’s first loss in this competition but there are still plenty of games to go. I had hoped for a win purely because it would have been nice to go into the Middlesex game at Lords next week on a continued high, but it seems that Middlesex have lost anyway so it’s pretty much even Stevens on that front.
I did feel sorry for Churchy. There he was, commentating away like the star he is, and then at 7.00pm the BBC yet again cut him off mid-sentence! A loss was always on the cards but it would still have been nice to have heard the end of the game. I felt a bit like Tony Hancock did when he read his 'whodunit' book and realised the last page where the killer was revealed was missing!
I shan’t go into the whys and wherefores, except to say that Trescothick was his usual magnificent self with a score of 69. He could quite easily have gone on to have made a hundred the way he was playing, until he holed out to Dernbach. In many ways Mark Ramprakash’s innings mirrored Trescothick’s to a certain degree, in that it was looking quite easy for both batsmen at the time they got out. The greater loss today was Surrey’s, as Ramps’ wicket was pretty much the turning point in the game. Even although Spriegel kept batting carefully and beautifully, the momentum was gone. Ramps has the ability to turn up the heat in a matter of overs and crank it up a gear. Spriegel doesn’t yet have that ability, although he is developing a welcome ‘stickability’ at the wicket these days.
Credit to Hildreth and de Bruyn. Their killer partnership was what made the difference today, with de Bruyn out for 89 and Hildreth for 68. The Surrey bowlers were by and large a tad rusty although far from hopeless, and kept plugging away gamely. But I guess when you are making a return from a lengthy lay-off the last thing you want to see is Trescothick tonking you to all parts. That said, welcome back Dernbach and Linley: I hope you came through today without feeling any further strains or soreness. Kudos also to the Somerset bowlers, in particular Kartik who picked up Ramps, Walters (for a duck) and Schofield (for 8). This little spell of play really was the beginning of the end for Surrey.
Noteworthy performances came from Tremlett with his commendable 31, Spriegel with his hard-fought for 53, and Ramps with his 42. They were missing that huge partnership that Somerset put on. I think with such a big tally to chase they really felt the scoreboard pressure today, with Trescothick winning the toss and batting first, as most people do at the Oval. Then with RHB going early and Davies making only 25, Surrey really were on the back foot. Jason Roy looked like he was settling in when a rather unfortunate incident with Buttler on the boundary rope denied Ramps a 6, got Roy on to strike, and then resulted in him getting out next ball! Buttler swore he’d saved the ball from going over and I guess you have to trust the judgement of the fielder in these situations. It didn’t stop poor Buttler from being booed every time the ball went his way, but from the batsman’s point of view the rope is still there to be cleared. I doubt Roy could have had much room for complaint.
The game ended with the home side all out for 209. This is Surrey’s first loss in this competition but there are still plenty of games to go. I had hoped for a win purely because it would have been nice to go into the Middlesex game at Lords next week on a continued high, but it seems that Middlesex have lost anyway so it’s pretty much even Stevens on that front.
I did feel sorry for Churchy. There he was, commentating away like the star he is, and then at 7.00pm the BBC yet again cut him off mid-sentence! A loss was always on the cards but it would still have been nice to have heard the end of the game. I felt a bit like Tony Hancock did when he read his 'whodunit' book and realised the last page where the killer was revealed was missing!
Saturday, 12 June 2010
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!#
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!#
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