Surrey vs Somerset 21st-24th April

A good day's cricket, and Somerset deserve credit for the way they applied ourselves. Their batting had been woeful in the first two championship matches, so while it did not make for pretty watching they were right to take a cautious approach and battle through the first two sessions, putting them in the box seat at the end of the day. I replaced Abell with Jamie Overton in my fantasy team ahead of the game, which feels like a schoolboy error right now.

It looked like a good toss to win, so it is hard to criticise the Surrey bowlers, but it is easier to criticise the decision to toss Sam Curran the new ball. As I've noted recently, even when he is at full fitness he is not a new ball bowler - England have worked that much out. Topley was by a distance our most threatening bowler today, and he should have been unleashed straightaway.

We're not behind in the game by any stretch, but I guess one of those days where you watch us toil.

Agreed about Topley, looked the part today

I’ve no issue with Sam getting some overs with the new ball, he’s a swing bowler and does well with both the new and the old, but Topley could have easily taken it instead of Clark, who has always been more suited to 1st/2nd change, in my opinion. I also think the club have lost the credibility gained by not selecting Sam just as a batsman by picking him as soon as he’d bowled 5 overs for the 2s.

Well to me Curran looked completely ineffective with the ball, there is little point in bowling 3 over spells. I suppose if he bats ok he just about justifies selection, but I would have picked a front line spinner by a mile.

I must admit i was surprised that the new ball was given to Jordan and Sam, and that Reece was used as 1st change. I presume the fact that they knew that Sam was going to bowl short spells was the reason he started from one end.
as for the comment about Jordan Clark being a good signing, I agree. He seems to be getting to the stage that he knows his role within the team and performing well
Be good to finish them off early today, and then get a score on the board to overtake them and put pressure on them 2nd time round. This game is easy behind a keyboard though. Would have been nice to take 1 or 2 more wickets in the last 10 or so overs last night, but at 220 odd for 3 Somerset were on top, with the 3 quick wickets bringing us back into the game

Top start from Jordan Clark

Good debate about the future of county cricket
from Churchy and Tony Gibson on comms.
No sign of Johnny Barran yet. The posh bird Isabelle
is a decent replacement.

Credit to the bowlers for digging in this morning, definitely an even pitch but feels a bit below par

Looks like a reasonable first innings score from Somerset to me. We're going to have to bat well here to stay in the game. Could be a tricky first 25 minutes.

Good effort to bowl them out after being put in. Sammy will need some runs after those ten overs which could have easily been shared amongst the other bowlers.

Steve wrote:Good debate about the future of county cricket
from Churchy and Tony Gibson on comms.
No sign of Johnny Barran yet. The posh bird Isabelle
is a decent replacement.

Anything, especially silence, would be a good replacement for Barran!

Well this is descending into a shitshow

Middle order have done really well.

Can someone give Burns a hug? How do you hit that!?

I’ll hug him if he cuts his hair

Can't fault the efforts too much of the batsmen, although Patel and Amla's dismissals were ugly. God knows about Burns, but Foakes got a good one off the back of an impressive spell from Siddle. Curran so far has been pretty decent, and I hope he can crack on for a big score

Alex! wrote:Can't fault the efforts too much of the batsmen, although Patel and Amla's dismissals were ugly. God knows about Burns, but Foakes got a good one off the back of an impressive spell from Siddle. Curran so far has been pretty decent, and I hope he can crack on for a big score

I think when you're caught at slip looking to play a ball into the *leg* side then you're plain unlucky and undone by excessive seam movement. First one that springs to mind is Trescothick at Lords in 2005.

How has nobody mentioned Banton’s catch off Pope yet??

Cee Gee wrote:How has nobody mentioned Banton’s catch off Pope yet??

It really was brilliant. I was sat right in front of it. No shame in losing your wicket to a take like that.

I thought it was a good day’s cricket. Amla will be kicking himself for sure, but it looks like two pretty evenly matched sides.

One day Curran will get a ton. Maybe. Well, at least we still look to be in the game

I’m not listening to the commentary but has there been any mention of an injury to Taylor? I won’t go on about Curran not bowling yet but Patel coming on before Taylor is odd.

Why hasn't Curran bowled in 2nd innings? apparently allowed 15 overs ?

At lunchtime, a draw looked far the likeliest result. At the end of Day 3, with a dry forecast tomorrow, one side or other should win.

Another good effort from our bowlers, but if Taylor is now injured and with Sam apparently having bowled his quota for the match in the first innings, we need to think carefully about our selection for the next match. Five front-line bowlers, please. We seem to be getting one injured every game.

I hope Ben Foakes will be okay to bat tomorrow.  it was a brilliant catch, and I wouldn't like to collide with Jamie Overton. I was worried when they started bringing a stretcher on, but he seemed to be walking off reasonably ok so hopefully he'll be fine.

Good performance today, but we might yet be the first CC Team in history to have just about everybody injured the way it's going.

Particularly as I was critical of his bowling against Hants, I'll give a shout out to Ryan Patel.

With Taylor and Curran unable to bowl for whatever reasons, he covered well for them in sending down eight overs on the reel after tea, starting the Somerset rot by removing Abell and allowing our remaining frontline seamers some extra breathing space.

All the injured are fast bowlers,so perhaps we need to play both of our spinners to increase the chance of finishing the match with all the bowlers fit,oh no I forgot we don’t play full time spinners this time of year!