Surrey v Kent

Yes lad!

Jedrich wrote:

Jedrich wrote:

Alex! wrote:Feel for Lawes tbh

Especially after that dropped catch. We needed that one.

Hah ! Well played Tom Lawes. He deserved that one.

He's done it again ! I'm liking the look of Lawes. He's getting the ball to move about a bit which none of the others have been able to do this morning.

Lawes could have had 5, what a good find.

Coatesy wrote:I notice that Curran has only bowled 9 overs so far

Hope he is not being restricted by the ECB again

He may be, but given the other seamers have not bowled that many more (Worrall 16, McKerr 13, Atkinson 13, Curran 9, Lawes 7) I don’t think we’re missing him if he is restricted.

I just wondered if he was restricted to something like 15 or 20 overs, and he is being held back for the 2nd innings

Those quick 2 wickets have opened up the game a bit. Would be ideal to have them following on before the end of the day

Will Macpherson is reporting that we’ve signed an Aussie called Aaron Hardie for the Blast and Scarborough. Averages 50 with the bat and 25 with the ball. Handy.

Is he a dual national or overseas? Noticed he was born in England

Noticed that too but I assume he’s overseas given the short stint.

Yes Lawes!

Essex beating Hants like that is also great for us

Come on lads

Would you follow-on tonight or would you bat again and whack another 100 or so and set a 450+ target?

Has to enforce the follow on

has to follow on, whats the point of taking time out of the game by batting again

In the unlikely event that Kent do overtake our score and make us bat again, we will then know how long we will have to chase any potential runs required

At tea-time, it looked like we had yet again gambled well by not selecting a front-line spinner. All of the seamers selected plus Jacks had chipped in. Tom Lawes certainly exceeded expectations. With hindsight, though, Kent's batsmen gifted us a  number of wickets, and we can't expect them to do so again. It is beginning to look like we may after all regret not picking Moriarty or Virdi, at the time of year when spinners come into their own (exhibits A, B and C from this week, messrs Leach, Harmer and Dawson).

We still have a whole day to bowl Kent out, and two or three wickets in the first hour will change the complexion entirely. Their lower order and tail are clearly all-rounders in the sense that they can neither bat nor bowl. So by this time tomorrow all may be rosy, especially given Hampshire losing.

Well done to Alec Stewart for conjuring up what looks like an impressive short-term signing, an all-rounder who can cover both T20 and the next championship game. I imagine that we are hoping that Sean Abbott's broken hand will have healed in time to join us as planned for the two home championship matches at the end of July. I am sure there will be some saying we don't need any more players in given the competition for places, but we definitely will need to be strengthened both in the T20 business end and when we face stronger tests of our championship credentials than we have to date.

Jackers wrote:At tea-time, it looked like we had yet again gambled well by not selecting a front-line spinner. All of the seamers selected plus Jacks chipped in  Tom Lawes certainly exceeded expectations. With hindsight, though, Kent's batsmen gifted us a  number of wickets, and we can't expect them to do so again. It is beginning to look like we may after all regret not picking a front-line spinner, at the time of year when they come into their own (exhibits A, B and C from this week, messrs Leach, Harmer and Dawson).

We still have a whole day to bowl Kent out, and two or three wickets in the first hour will change the complexion entirely. Their lower order and tail are clearly all-rounders in the sense that they can neither bat nor bowl. So by this time tomorrow all may be rosy, especially given Hampshire losing.

Well done to Alec Stewart for conjuring up what looks like an impressive short-term signing, an all-rounder who can cover both T20 and the next championship game. I imagine that we are hoping that Sean Abbott's broken hand will have healed in time to join us as planned for the two home championship matches at the end of July. I am sure there will be some saying we don't need any more players in given the competition for places, but we definitely will need to be strengthened both in the T20 business end and when we face stronger tests of our championship credentials than we have to date.

Fully agree with all of that. I was there on Sunday and again today. I'm unsure whether Moriarty or Virdi would have fared much better than Jacks, or Linde for that matter who has international caps and impressive career stats. I'd like to have accommodated one of our young spinners but had that been at the expense of Lawes or Geddes (with Jacks at 4) it could have been swings and roundabouts. Maybe we should have aimed to prepare a more spin friendly pitch but its hard to argue with team strategy given results at The Oval so far, especially as we've lost the toss in all four matches.

Tom Lawes didn’t come on to bowl his 5th over until around over number 75. Its better to be a lucky captain than a good one and Burns got lucky with Lawes immediately taking wickets - but if you’re bringing on a 5th (!) seamer to have a proper spell that late on then the team balance and the overall strategy is flawed .i think the pitch is a separate matter and it probably isn’t playing (yet) how they would have hoped or expected.

I see Jacks has 11 wickets for an average of 42.27. Hardly the stats of a “specialist “ spinner that Stewart and Batty claim him to be!! There was a great opportunity for him to succeed with plenty of runs on the board and a dry pitch, and he looked innocuously. When will they learn ???

If we do wind up drawing, I don't think it's for a lack of trying. Worrall was sending some seriously good deliveries at Denly but just had no luck

Think this has also shown just how valuable Jordan Clark has been with the new ball

Problem is so we really have a "specialist" spinner in either Jacks, Virdi or Moriaty? Not sure any of them are really good enough. We seem to have managed well without one so far, and blimey Lawes took 4 and had 2 dropped. Should we have played another spinner instead of him? He was moving the ball all over the place. Maybe not playing two spinners will bite us in the bum eventually, but at present they seem rather surplus to requirements.

Worral was indeed unlucky, could have had wickets in both innings as he beat the bat a lot. I would have liked to see Virdi given a game, he does seem to take wickets, I also think we miss Overton, Topley and Clark. Looks to me as if Kent will escape, hope I am wrong, but the pitch is easy except when the new ball is around.

offdrive4 wrote: I also think we miss Overton, Topley and Clark.  

I think that missing these 3 is more vital than playing another spinner, and yes I know we had 3 in the squad, if you include Steel as well. The BBC report (which I now cant find) last night did suggest that Jacks struggled to get any spin from the pitch, which may be because he isnt a frontline spinner (yet) or it may be because of the pitch

we need at least a couple of wickets before lunch, heres hoping scoreboard/batting for time pressure gets to Kent, though the 1st 4 are all experienced.

Any quality spinner should get something from a pitch that may be good to bat on but is nothing like the roads we saw last year. And today's weather, with early rain "freshening" the wicket, should be absolutely tailor-made for any half-decent seam attack. if we don't win, we can't blame our batsmen who scored at a very good rate, or the timing of the declaration which was just about perfect. Over two-and-a-half days should be ample time to bowl out a side like Kent twice.

Rain might intervene today…

Chinaman, Virdi has 139!wickets at an average of just under 30 runs per wicket. And a best of 8/6 and 14 wickets in the match!! Compares very favourably with Jacks I think!!

Yes Sammy!