SURREY
BAT TO SAVE DRAW AS PIETERSEN FAILS AGAIN by Marcus Hook
Surrey 380 & 206-7 v Glamorgan 276. Match drawn.
For the first time this season, Surrey batted to
save a draw in the championship; a level-headed sixth wicket stand
of 124 in 43 overs between Chris Schofield and Gary Wilson coming to
the hosts' rescue after they collapsed to 21-5 with Kevin Pietersen
making just one. When Schofield, who followed up his 63 in the first
dig with 90, came to the crease at the end of the thirteenth over it
looked as though Surrey would surrender as tamely as Middlesex were
in the process of doing five miles up the road. The result means
that the Oval outfit now sit 13 points behind their local rivals,
albeit at the wrong end of Division Two, with a game in hand.
After Jade Dernbach drew a line under Glamorgan's
first innings, by trapping Huw Waters leg before, Jason Roy got the
home side off to a decent start, flicking Waters to the rope at deep
backward square leg in the second over and cover driving James
Harris for four in the third. But then three Surrey wickets fell
with the total on 14.
Tom Lancefield, pulling, looped a catch to point.
Roy, driving Waters straight to backward point, perished in the
sixth over, then Mark Ramprakash recorded his third duck of the
season when he edged a rising delivery from Harris to Tom Maynard at
second slip.
In the 11th over, Rory Hamilton-Brown despatched
Harris through cover off the back foot for four, only to play all
around the 21-year-old's next delivery, which parted the Surrey
captain's middle and off stumps.
By this time, Kevin Pietersen had taken the stage,
but was having some difficulty assuming the centre of it. The former
Notts and Hampshire batsman could only manage a hurriedly stolen
single off Waters before he became Harris's fourth victim, walking
across his stumps to fall lbw, when Surrey's advantage stood at a
mere 125.
Harris, who is Glamorgan's leading wicket-taker in
this summer's championship, went to lunch with figures of 10-5-18-4,
and the home side licking their healing wounds at 41-5.
In the third over following the break, Schofield
hooked Harris to the rope at mid-wicket. Four overs later Wilson cut
Harris for four, though not before he had offered him a sharp return
catch. Had Harris held on, the hosts would have been 48-6.
In the 36th over, Schofield brought up the fifty
partnership with a straight driven four off Waters. Four overs
later, the former England leg-spinner worked Robert Croft off his
hip and down to the rope at long leg before on driving Croft's next
ball for four.
Schofield faced 95 deliveries in reaching his
second half-century in the match. But shortly afterwards Wilson was
caught by Ben Wright, diving forward at extra cover, off the bowling
of Robert Croft for a conscientiously accumulated 45.
Two overs later, Gareth Batty brought the 150 up
for Surrey with a cover driven four off Croft. Schofield moved to 90
when he despatched Jamie Dalrymple's off-spin back over the bowler's
head. But four balls later, Schofield, dancing down the pitch the
Glamorgan skipper, was stumped down the leg-side. He had batted for
203 minutes, and had hit 11 fours in 172 deliveries.
At 4.21pm, the curtain came down on a game that
was ravaged by the rain, when both sides shook hands on an evenly
contested draw.
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