THE STORY SO FAR OF SURREY'S TWENTY20 CUP
CAMPAIGN by Marcus Hook Beckenham, 22 June: Surrey
(141-3) beat Kent (140-8) by 7 wickets
Despite being without a number of key players, including Scott Newman, who was
serving a one-match suspension following an incident in training the previous
day, the Surrey Lions stated their intentions for this season’s Twenty20 Cup by
kicking off with an emphatic seven-wicket win over the Kent Spitfires. When
Batty and Clarke saw the visitors home with an unbeaten fourth wicket
partnership of 29 the shell-shocked hosts still had four overs to bowl. That
Kent, who won the toss, set a target of 141 had much to do with Van Jaarveld’s
44-ball 51. The departure of the Kolpak signing, caught behind off Murtagh,
heralded the arrival of Cook who rounded off the Spitfires’ effort by
bludgeoning 20 off twelve deliveries. But it soon became a case of too little
too late when James Benning and Alistair Brown saw their side to 68 before being
parted. Kemp had Brown caught at long off then disposed of Thornely first ball,
but the South Africa all-rounder proved expensive, which, having earlier
struggled for 16 deliveries to make ten runs, did little to endear him to the
partisan crowd of 7,000. By way of contrast Benning, hitting uninhibitedly,
needed just thirty balls to post his first half-century in Twenty20 cricket,
which included two sixes, the first of which landed in the Kent committee’s
marquee.
Lord’s, 23 June: Surrey (200-3) beat Middlesex (177) by 23 runs
Last Thursday, not even a pyrotechnic innings from Owais Shah, who struck five
sixes on course to recording the highest individual score against Surrey in
Twenty20 cricket, could cause the Lions to loose their cool on a sultry evening
in Central London. With his side needing a challenging 201 to win, the
26-year-old, who made 78 off just 44 balls, seemed to be carrying the Middlesex
Crusaders to victory when Tim Murtagh returned to bowl the third of his four
overs. A wonderful catch at long-on by Brown soon accounted for Shah, whose
wicket became the first of nine to fall in the space of five overs for 29 runs.
When the pandemonium was over Murtagh had taken 6-24 – the best ever figures in
the brief history of the Twenty20 Cup. His fifth and sixth scalps will live long
in the memories of the 25,000 who witnessed them. Weekes, who made a fateful
miss when Surrey batted by dropping Brown on 32, departed to a stinging return
catch and Scott was brilliantly caught by Harbhajan Singh running back from
mid-wicket to take the chance over his shoulder. The visitors were beside
themselves with joy and for good reason. But the win, which was comfortable in
the end, owed much to Thornely and Clarke’s unbeaten stand of 75 in 21 minutes
earlier in the piece.
Brit Oval, 25 June: Hampshire (119-7) beat Surrey (118) by 3 wickets
Last Saturday was a day of firsts. Surrey’s first match in front of the new OCS
Stand ended with the Lions’ first ever group stage defeat in the Twenty20 Cup.
But the contest could well have become the shortest ever – which would have been
of immense disappointment to the 12,000-strong crowd – had it not been for Rikki
Clarke’s first half-century in Twenty20 cricket. After winning the toss, the
hosts’ innings began horrendously when Logan and Bruce reduced them to 26-5
inside four overs. But other than Newman, Surrey’s top order batsmen only had
themselves to blame. The luck was with Clarke, though. He was dropped on nine
and, infuriatingly for Logan, the next ball was despatched straight down the
ground for six. Clarke went on to make 52 off 44 deliveries, which looked likely
to earn him the man of the match award when Hampshire then attempted to commit
hari-kari. But the arrival at the crease in the tenth over of Shaun Udal brought
a sense of perspective to proceedings. In partnership with Adams the Hawks’
stand-in skipper put on an unbeaten 53 for the eighth wicket. Their alliance
included just five boundaries, which proves that ones and twos are equally as
important, and the visitors eventually chased down Surrey’s lowest ever total in
the Twenty20 Cup with thirteen deliveries to spare.
Brit Oval, 28 June: Surrey (180-7) beat Middlesex (78-4) by 22 runs (D/L
method)
Before the arrival of Tuesday night’s thunderstorms Rikki Clarke followed up his
28-ball 46 with three wickets in an over to thwart Middlesex for the second time
in the space of a week. The loss of nine overs to the elements meant that Surrey
were awarded their 22-run victory under the Duckworth-Lewis system. The victory
returned the Lions to the top of their Twenty20 group table on run rate. After
winning the toss and showing more application with the bat than they displayed
against Hampshire in the previous match, Surrey’s upper order provided Tim
Murtagh, destroyer of Middlesex with the ball in the corresponding fixture at
Lord’s last week, with the ideal platform to drive a steak through the
Crusaders’ hearts once again. The 23-year-old all-rounder pillaged 22 runs off
the final over of the hosts’ innings, bowled by Betts, which went 6-4-4-2-2-4.
That hoisted the Lions’ total up to 180-7, which would have been a big ask even
if the light was not starting to become a factor. Undaunted, Middlesex set off
positively and by the fifth over of their reply had put on 41 for the loss of
Shah, who was caught on the square leg boundary off the bowling of, you guessed
it, Murtagh. But then Clarke accounted for Styris with his first ball, thanks to
a brilliant catch by Sampson running round from third man, as well as Smith and
Joyce to complete his opening over, which was also a maiden. When the threat of
torrential rain eventually became reality, the visitors had only managed 78-4
versus a par score, at that stage, of 100.
Hove, 29 June: Surrey (116-5) beat Sussex (139-6) by 5 wickets (D/L
method)
Should Azhar Mahmood ever do Karaoake it seems a fair bet that he would attempt
to sing Phil Collins’s ‘Against All Odds’. In last year’s Twenty20 Cup
semi-final the Pakistan all-rounder delivered a dramatic final over to keep
Surrey’s unbeaten run in the competition alive. On Wednesday night, at Hove,
with 14 runs needed off three balls, he clubbed a six and two fours to hand the
Lions a similarly improbable victory. Rain meant that the Duckworth-Lewis ready
reckoners were out again. When the details of Sussex’s innings were entered into
the program, out came a target of 114 off thirteen overs. As long as Brown was
at the crease, the momentum was with Surrey. The 35-year-old broke a window in
one of the flats on the eastern side of the ground on his way to a 28-ball
half-century. But after he was cleaned up by Wright’s off-stump yorker the
visitors looked in danger of losing their way when three further wickets, two of
them run outs involving their eventual saviour, fell in the space of five
minutes. When Sussex batted, Ward, who rode his luck, and Prior put on 42 for
the first wicket before Mahmood accounted for the former Surrey opener. But
there was almost no stopping Matt Prior, who went on to record his second fifty
in this summer’s Twenty20 Cup. Goodwin mastered spin better than anyone on the
night, but once again the Lions showed that they never feel a target is beyond
them in this code of the game. Afterwards, Alistair Brown said: “We never
believe we’re beaten and the one time we were beaten this season we had
Hampshire 66-7 in a game we had no right to finish second in. As long as you are
positive and you’ve got wickets in hand, the luck goes with you. You’ve got to
be positive and not be afraid and that’s what we did. You could say we were
lucky to come out winners today, but I thought we played some good cricket in
parts. Azhar’s helped us out a few times in the past when we’ve needed him and
today was no different.”
Brit Oval, 1 July: Surrey (167-6) beat Kent (144-8) by 23 runs
Last Friday evening the biggest crowd for a county match at the Oval in nearly
fifty years, 20,041 to be precise, witnessed Surrey complete a satisfying
Twenty20 double over Kent. By lunchtime the box office at the Brit Oval had no
more tickets to sell, which was all the more remarkable given that there was
little riding on the outcome of the contest. Even if the Spitfires were to taste
victory for the first time in this summer’s Twenty20 Cup it was mathematically
impossible for them to reach the last eight, while a win for the Lions would
still not have secured a quarter-final place on 18 July. When rain called a halt
to proceedings after four overs it looked as if that was all the capacity crowd
was going to get. But when play resumed each subsequent shower was merely
dismissed as an irrelevance. Of far greater concern was the failing light, which
was extremely poor in the middle phase of Kent’s run-chase and could not have
done the visitors any favours as they sought to respond to Surrey’s stirring
167-6 in fifteen overs. Walker and Hall guided the Spitfires to 47 without loss
in five overs, but then Matt Walker tried to run the first ball of the sixth
down to third man and was bowled by Nayan Doshi. The slow left-armer suffered at
the hands of Carberry, who clubbed 18 runs off the five remaining deliveries of
the sixth over; yet it was Doshi who went on to account for the cream of Kent’s
batting. His next victim was Key, who holed out to long-off, then Stevens, whom
he trapped lbw attempting a pull-sweep and, finally, van Jaarsveld, who was
caught by Brown running in from long-on. That left the Spitfires needing 45 off
three overs with four wickets in hand. They managed just two more boundaries as
their dash for the line petered out. Earlier, Alistair Brown celebrated winning
the toss by announcing himself with a six in each of the first two overs. After
he went, bowled leg stump, and Batty and Benning departed in successive overs,
it was left to the Lions’ hero of Hove, Azhar Mahmood and then Scott Newman to
compile a daunting total. Newman, who was dropped on the straight boundary off
Kemp when he had made just 10, went on to record his first half-century in the
Twenty20 Cup for more than two years. The penultimate over of Surrey’s innings,
bowled by Simon Cook, went for 25 and included successive sixes, the first
straight down the ground and the second on-driven, from the blade of Newman.
Chelmsford, 5 July: Essex (71-3) beat Surrey (70-2) by 1 run
On Tuesday, with the match not starting until 9.40pm, and amid steady rain,
Essex just got the better of Surrey under lights at Chelmsford. It may have
provided the 3,000-strong crowd with some belated entertainment, but did little
else other than keep alive the Eagles' frail hopes of making it through to the
knockout stages of this summer's Twenty20 Cup. Stuart Kerrison and his
groundstaff worked tirelessly to remove as much water as possible from the
playing surface, but it was highly debatable whether they had succeeded in their
task when the cut off time for staging the minimum five-overs-per-side contest
arrived. Essex's captain Ronnie Irani, ably abetted by James Middlebrook scored
58 off the first 21 balls, Middlebrook hitting two sixes and two fours and Irani
cracking a six and five fours. Both got out to Azhar Mahmood, who appeared to
have turned things round for the Lions when he came to bat. With Antonio
Palladino accounting for Benning and Brown in the second over of the Surrey
innings for the cost of just three runs, Mahmood struck three sixes in four
balls off Kaneria. But an ask of 16 off the final over proved to be just beyond
the visitors. Afterwards, the Lions' skipper Alistair Brown made no attempt to
hide his irritation at the decision to play. He said: "I think it was an
embarrassing decision to play five overs. Two of the best spinners in the world
couldn't bowl. I needed Phil Taylor and 'One dart' Manley to bowl for me today
because darts was all that was needed there. It was exciting but I've played in
that situation before, exactly the same - wet outfield not particularly safe -
and it was rained off. I would be saying exactly the same if we had won. I
didn't think it was fit. It's not sour grapes because we have qualified
anyway. Twenty20 is a great competition, don't get me wrong, but five
overs on a wet outfield when it's raining is
farcical."
Brit Oval, 6 July: Sussex (148-7) beat Surrey (144-8) by 3 wickets
When the dust settled on Wednesday night's three-wicket loss to the Sussex
Sharks, which was engineered by Surrey old boy Ian Ward, who struck a
29-ball half-century that included three sixes, the Brit Oval outfit
amazingly found themselves top of their Twenty20 Cup group yet again. But
the guarantee of a home tie in the quarter-finals on 18 July meant that
the Lions' second successive defeat in the competition
was not the thing upper most in coach Steve Rixon's
mind when he spoke to Oval World. With no
Hollioake, who is now retired, and the likes of Butcher, Ormond and
Ramprakash missing due to injury, many of Surrey's leading lights in last year's
Twenty20 Cup have been missing this time round. But, according to Rixon, that
has simply meant that others have had to put their hands up. He
said: "It's great that Tim Murtagh's come to the party. We're obviously
relying heavily on Azhar Mahmood at the moment, he stands alone in this
game, and Nayan Doshi's still maintaining his strength in the
competition. But generally I think the blokes are
pretty relaxed with their game, enjoying it and are
pretty confident in any situation. Like in the game
against Hampshire when we got bowled out for nothing and had them 66-7.
That's just believing in yourself and that belief is still here." But
Rixon agreed that a feature of Surrey's cricket this
summer, in all competitions, has been the vast
improvement in the fielding. Rixon said: "The difference
in our game has been in the field. Our catching has been better, albeit
that it wasn't bad last year, and our ground fielding
has been outstanding. We've probably done a little
more work on it in the lead up, because we know how
important it is and the edge comes from that. The occasional run out or the
great catch along the way. Everyone's doing their bit and even our worst
fielders are more than capable in this game. When we drop one they stand
out, whereas last year the one that was caught was the one that was
standing out." Rixon was also keen to stress the
contribution of both his overseas players. He said:
"From the moment Harbhajan got here he has been
appreciative of us waiting for him and giving him an opportunity to express
himself with Surrey. He loves the area and he loves being with the boys.
Unfortunately we've only got him for one more championship match, but if
the Zimbabwe tour doesn't go ahead, he's very keen to
come back." Rixon added: "Azhar has so many strengths
to his bow. Whether it be in the field, with the bat
in a crisis situation, like the one down at Hove, or with the ball,
it gives you a hell of a chance if you've got people like that in your
side. But it's time for others to stand up and do a
bit more. We need to get more out of our opening
combination with the bat. The likes of Ramprakash coming
back into the fold is going to stabilise that and I think Rikki Clarke
has got a bigger part to play. If you look at the
bigger picture there's plenty to look forward to and
we're still winning."
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