Surrey vs Northants at the Oval 5th-8th May

Foakes in, Smith out injured. Otherwise squad same as last time.
Northants beat us away last September, but I reckon not with this year's squad, and the pitch has to be better than Bristol!

From the squad available, we should go:

Burns, Patel, Amla, Pope, Jacks, Foakes, De Grandhomme, Clark, Overton, Virdi, Topley

Close call between Topley and Worrall, but until I've seen more of Worrall Topley shades it. Overton should be fresh and deserves another chance based on his improvement in the early games.

Smith's absence makes the batting selection easier. Had he been available Jacks should have dropped out with Virdi providing a serious spin option. Sam Curran could count himself unlucky to miss out, but until he is able to share the bowling load he is an indulgent pick rather than an important one.

While we have an army of middle-order men in sparkling form, Burns and Amla could both do with runs. I have slight worries about them both: with Burns, it is that we have been here before with Stoneman where he was never the same player after England had finished with him; with Amla, is Old Father Time creeping up? Hopefully the pair are just out of nick and will underline the old adage that form is temporary, class is permanent.

I will not see a ball bowled as I am off to the lovely city of Prague tomorrow and returning on Sunday, but I shall be following progress with interest

Surely Worrall must play?


Northamptonshire Squad to face Surrey

Ricardo Vasconcelos (c)
Josh Cobb
Emilio Gay
Matt Kelly
Rob Keogh
Simon Kerrigan
Lewis McManus (wk)
Luke Procter
Ben Sanderson
Tom Taylor
Jack White
Will Young
Saif Zaib

I thought Burns/Patel/Amla were quite hard done by at Bristol, having had to bat during a very difficult first hour and everyone else getting a road.

I am not hugely concerned yet but yes, a well-timed century for Burns would be nice.

Here's my preview of the 4-day clash between @surreycricket and @NorthantsCCC which starts today: http://www.ovalworld-online.com/prevsurnorcc2022.htm

First-class stats sheet for @surreycricket vs @NorthantsCCC http://www.ovalworld-online.com/fc_stats_surrey_northamptonshire.pdf

For Surrey's fixtures and scorecards go to: http://www.ovalworld-online.com/cards.htm

No Pope!!!!!!!

I see they've moved from one side of the strip right to the other

7, SEVEN seam bowling options.

I get that Sam is probably limited in what he can bowl and Patel is there as a batsman, but seriously what are we doing?

With the injury to Smith and Pope unwell I'm fine with us selecting Jacks as a batsman but seriously why no Moriarty or Virdi instead of one of the seamers.

Could sub Moriarty for Atkinson and still have Worral, Overton, Clark, CDG as frontline seamers with Curran and Patel backing up. Its not like we need the batting as we are gonna have Overton/Atkinson at 10.

Alex! wrote:I see they've moved from one side of the strip right to the other

It looks like there's a really short boundary on one side.

Jacks at 4 seems....a bit much

Too many medium fast bowlers in this side,should be playing Virdi or Moriarty in place of Atkinson. Jacks at 4 with this tail More muddled thinking from Batty!

I’m not sure Jacks at 4 is an issue with this line up. I think most of us would agree he’s primarily a front line batter. Given his contributions and sacrifices down the order so far this season I think he deserves a chance at 4 given Foakes is locked at 5. Hopefully he lasts longer in the second innings!

Cee Gee wrote:I’m not sure Jacks at 4 is an issue with this line up. I think most of us would agree he’s primarily a front line batter. Given his contributions and sacrifices down the order so far this season I think he deserves a chance at 4 given Foakes is locked at 5. Hopefully he lasts longer in the second innings!

Greetings from Prague. Poor Will didn't last long today, but I wonder if he needs to be allowed to concentrate on specialising as a batsman. I would hate to see him become Jacks of all trades, but master of none...

BURNSY

A fantastic innings from Burns when there was a wobble at 80 odd for 3. Bided his time and well aided by Curran, who is making me eat my hat with some impressive batting performances. We're seeing a bit of the batting potential he first showed early on his career, and I can only hope he finally gets a score over the line...

Massively disappointed so far with de Grandhomme, which is a shame. Fell hook line and sinker for that...

Batting was difficult all day today, which makes Burns innings more valuable, as was Sam’s as well,be interesting to se how the pitch plays tomorrow!

Have to say it's massively encouraging to see Fortis and the groundstaff prepare another pitch that is offering the bowlers a bit more, but the age old adage that the runs are definitely there if you bide your time.

Anyone know why stand nearest the wicket at Vauxhall end is closed today?

The answer to my question above apparently is they are counting the votes from local elections on lower concourse?

Oh Sam! He will never get a ton where he has to come back the next day and finish it off.

Have to say Atkinson's cover drive was wonderful, brilliant runs from the lower order here

I'm somewhat relieved watching Kerrigan that we've not elected to play a frontline spinner on such a short boundary

I don't want to jinx anything but this is great stuff from these two. These runs could turn out to be very useful.

I will happily take 400 on the pitch. Brilliant, brilliant batting from the lower order.

Promising start. There's been some good bowling from Worrall and Clark.