Up from the ashes grow the roses of success...

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?!?

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!

Kenny's revenge!

What a cruel game cricket can be! And yet at the same time a fantastic one.

Yesterday’s win for Hampshire in the T20 final went right down to the wire. They looked as if they were going to coast it, and so I committed the cardinal sin of switching it off with two overs remaining. As Homer Simpson might say: ‘Doh!’

That’ll teach me to be complacent.

It appears the result was a tie, which had seemed impossible earlier considering the effortless manner of the Hants performance. Somerset had been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at their opponents but to no avail, and the fact Pollard was ‘missing presumed concussed’ served to weaken the Somerset attack. Alas for Somerset, in the case of a tie it goes down to who lost the least wickets, and that of course gifted the title to Hants!

You can’t really argue with it, however. Rules are rules, and Hants deserved to lift that trophy according to those regulations. It does seem a shame to decide a game in such a way, a bit like wheeling out a penalty shoot-out in a World cup final (not that I’m into football, overly), but Hants did look the more solid of the two teams on the day. Congrats to them, and commiserations to Somerset. Coming runner-up two years in a row must sting a bit! But it must have been fantastic to see Hants lift the trophy actually at the Rose Bowl, with so many of their fans to witness it.

I wasn’t unhappy with the result except I would have felt a little smugger in terms of bragging rights had Somerset sneaked it. My prediction for the final this year was in fact a Somerset win. Drat! So near and yet so far!

The big news of the day came when Caesar the Lion came last in the mascot race. Quite clearly he’d been nobbled! I can only assume Kenny Kennington, nose still out of joint at his usurpation, slipped Caesar a ‘Mickey Finn’ in the bar prior to the race. Either that or Chris Adams made poor Afzaal get in the costume...

On a non-cricket related matter, I have today notched up another year. It has a three in it; that’s all I am saying. So, happy third birthday to me!

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!

Sooner or later, karma’s always going to get you!

I am happy to report that Kenny Kennington’s fast footwork was not required in today’s game, as the Lions absolutely thumped a rather lacklustre, er...what are they called these days? They used to be the Sabres but I’m informed they now go by the rather catchy name of ‘Somerset.’ Surely a team that boasts the likes of Trescothic and Hildreth deserves a catchy name!

The atmosphere seemed pretty charged at the Oval this evening and, judging by the way the crowd got behind the team (no doubt fuelled by yesterday’s gritty championship win), this must have spurred Surrey on into over-achieving. Having won the toss and elected to bat first, the total they posted wasn’t exactly commanding, and yet it was certainly a solid one. And then – knock me down with a paper clip – young Lancefield opened the batting with Mr Ramprakash! Ramps, opening??? It’s been a few years since that happened!

You will recall that Surrey are missing a few players at the moment. Gareth Batty has apparently broken his finger, although it didn’t stop him from screaming delightedly in the commentary box whenever Surrey were doing well (it really was brilliant commentary on tonight’s game)! Michael Brown was a little more restrained with his comments from what should be termed ‘crock’s corner’, instead settling for telling Pollard off whenever he got up to anything not really in the spirit of the game. Quite right, too!

There were one or two annoyed Rampants listening in as Pollard decided he was going to shoot his mouth off to Mr R. Nobody had evidently told Pollard that sledging never works on Ramps. I couldn’t help but chuckle at Michael Brown’s insistence that the cricketing gods had taken their revenge on Pollard during the game for all the rather foolish things he’d done. I was awaiting a Monty Python-style giant foot to come hurtling down from the sky to squash him!

Lancefield did not too badly on his T20 debut and made 16 before being caught by Suppiah, but there followed a nice little partnership between Jason Roy and Mark Ramprakash which lasted until 96 runs were on the board, with Ramps getting caught by Trescothic for 34. I was just glad Pollard didn’t catch him. Could you imagine the gloating, considering all the lip he was giving?

And not just Mr Ramprakash, for it sounded as if Jason Roy copped some backchat as well, as Pollard patrolled the pitch like a malevolent Dalek. I guess you expect it in cricket these days, and I suppose in certain circumstances sledging can be mildly amusing. It’s a rather underhand tactic though, in my opinion, and rather than simply being another weapon in a bowler’s armoury I tend to view it as unimaginative and showing a lack of faith in one’s ability to get the batsman out with deeds rather than words.

Roy was a joy – again! After Ramps went he put on a further excellent partnership with the skipper (or the stripper as I accidentally dubbed him, much to the amusement of the Rampants), Younus Khan having gone for only 2 runs previously. Surrey did look like they were teetering a touch, with the runs just about coming but gradually drying up. Fortunately Roy hit 3 sixes to get the score moving again, pushing on whenever the innings looked in danger of stagnating. RHB made 25, and Roy hit an impressive 74 before he was caught. Walters remained not out on 1 at the end, with Wilson being run-out for the same score off the last ball.

With 172 needed to win Somerset would have fancied their chances on a good batting surface like the Oval. It seemed a total that was just a smidge better than par. But if Roy had been a hero with the bat, Spriegel proved equally brilliant with the ball. The rapidity in which Somerset lost their top order was quite astonishing, and never really allowed them back into the game. Compton (1) went first to a re-energised Tremlett, hyped up after yesterdays win no doubt, and then the massive wicket of Trescothic fell to Spriegel for 4, with de Bruyn falling almost immediately afterwards to Schofield for a duck! In T20 it is so difficult to pull that kind of thing back. A brief word of praise for Mr Meaker, who took his first ever T20 wicket, made all the sweeter no doubt by whose it was! *cough* Pollard *cough*

When Tremlett got Hildreth for 10 it was Surrey’s game to lose. Young Buttler played excellently and for a time looked like he was holding things together for Somerset, but the mounties always get their man and eventually Wilson had him stumped for 29. It was pretty much game over at that point, leaving Surrey fans in the crowd to bask in what was an inevitable win.

Suppiah made 13, Phillips 5, whilst Kartik (16no) and Turner (11no) were left trying to keep an eye on the run-rate situation. With so many teams bunching in the table behind Sussex (who lost to Middlesex) these things might well determine who gets a qualifying spot and who doesn’t.

And what of Pollard, I hear you ask?

Well, he made 19 with the bat, swaggered around in the field, made lots of errors and nearly fell down the stairs as well. He played very well for Surrey, overall. Pity he didn’t do so well for Somerset!