Surrey T20 side

Well played (again) Jamie Overton and Laurie Evans.

Cee Gee wrote:Please stop all this ECB nonsense - if all players were available we’d have been smacked around by Bairstow, Malan and Root. We’ve only got ourselves to blame for those painful first 7/8 overs. The second Pope came in he was finding the gaps immediately. We’d have likely scored 10/15 more in the power play if he’d have been in at 3. I’ve long said that if Burns plays he should open but he was awful. I could understand Curran as a batsman only in the dead rubber at Somerset but batting him at 3 in this match was a piss take.

And by Harry Brook? Both teams were heavily weakened (and shouldn't have been). Not sure which was weakened most. Must be disappointment for you guys but watching a match where the balance keeps tipping from side to side may be some compensation.

Is that Hardie's spell as locum done and dusted? Hard for an inexperienced player to be dropped into unfamiliar conditions like that and perform.

Not sure Burns was “awful”.

Why did we not prepare a spinning pitch with three spinning in the team? Why did we not send Narine in earlier? Many questions to ask a bumbling management team, who can’t seem to get anything right lately. Hardie failed yet again,doesn’t look a great signing in white ball cricket. Hope he’s better at red ball cricket!!&

Just feel numb. Need to take a week away from cricket

RB wrote:Not sure Burns was “awful”.

By the time he got out it felt like a relief. He seemed incapable of finding any gaps and rotating the strike, particularly against the spinners where he consistently kept playing the same shot and hitting the same fielder. He got lucky with some release shots once the pressure had built up. I thought he was awful and I genuinely felt sorry for him out there. He looked lost and out of his depth. You thought he helped set a good platform. There’s no middle ground in our views there so possibly best left alone.

I told you lot not to expect to win as we would get
f**ked like a bitch by the ECB. Let’s beat the Yorkies
at Scarborough in a more important game.

Steve wrote:I told you lot not to expect to win as we would get
f**ked like a bitch by the ECB. Let’s beat the Yorkies
at Scarborough in a more important game.

Your Yorkshire mirror image was no doubt saying the same was true for Yorkshire until the match was won, though hopefully in less offensive language. They were missing Malan, Brook, Bairstow and Root from the batting. You're missing Roy, Sam Curran, Jordan and Topley. Willey and Pope both allowed to play. Both teams had to replace an overseas player. If you had been playing Derbyshire or Notts, Surrey would have been more seriously disadvantaged than their opponents but against Yorkshire? I think not, as I suspect most of your fellow posters would accept.

As I said before the game, Yorkshire was about the best team we would have drawn, given that they too were a victim of the ECB's sadistic abuse of power.

While it may have been a close game, it lacked integrity. The swathes of empty public seats because of the short notice reflected that.

Alex! wrote:Willey released from England duty for tonight. That's fair...

For the record, David Willey specifically requested to the England Management that he play in last night's fixture even though he is leaving Yorkshire.

It is not known if any of the Surrey players in the England squad made a similar request.

Willey was relatively becalmed with the bat, but his bowling  - dismissing our best hope Will Jacks so early - was absolutely key. I can't believe Sam Curran in particular would not have wanted to play, having been such a key component of our side for most of the group games. His brother did not bowl, fielded poorly, and was within a whisker of being bowled before he made a few runs.

the team selection was wrong too by us. for example why play Burns who does not improvise shots.
i n one over he tried 3 reverse sweeps and made a hash each time. he is good county bowler who has a solid defense not an explosive batsman. they should have tried Patel who at least can play expansive shots.
Also throwing Tom straight into first team games having not played any matches in nearly a year, you could see how rusty he was by the fielding.

Not sure about the Burns criticism. Damn sight better than Smith and Steel have been.

28 off 27 when you only need 8 an over is more than good enough for the “anchorman” role.

At the start of the season I felt that we had the best balanced T20 team we've had for a number of seasons. We really seemed to have every base covered with a line-up consisting of experienced quality overseas players along with some good domestic signings and a lot of our younger players starting to fulfil their potential as well as players returning from injury. So it seems a missed opportunity not to at least have reached finals day. I know other counties have been impacted by international callups but I do feel that those along with injuries have disrupted our team perhaps more than others. It still seems wrong to me that the competition has been scheduled to coincide with so many international matches. Given that the Blast ends by the middle of the month, it would have been good to see it given priority at least until then.

Among all the issues with the schedule I hope next years allows us to have Narine again. He’s been a joy to watch.

Cee Gee wrote:Among all the issues with the schedule I hope next years allows us to have Narine again. He’s been a joy to watch.

... apart from his fielding :-)

Jedrich wrote:At the start of the season I felt that we had the best balanced T20 team we've had for a number of seasons. We really seemed to have every base covered with a line-up consisting of experienced quality overseas players along with some good domestic signings and a lot of our younger players starting to fulfil their potential as well as players returning from injury. So it seems a missed opportunity not to at least have reached finals day. I know other counties have been impacted by international callups but I do feel that those along with injuries have disrupted our team perhaps more than others. It still seems wrong to me that the competition has been scheduled to coincide with so many international matches. Given that the Blast ends by the middle of the month, it would have been good to see it given priority at least until then.

Fair point about injuries generally but again Yorkshire have also been badly hit. Not sure if they would play T20 but Fisher and Coad are injured, also a youngster Leach who played at least one match earlier. Ballance missing from the batting too, though not through physical injury.

Looking at the teams last night I would have expected Surrey to beat Yorkshire 9 times out of 10, perhaps 8 in 10 for T20 given its brevity. The 2 out of 10 is bound to happen sometimes and (for what my opinion is worth, i e not a lot) I don't think it happening should be cause for massive criticism, at least of the players. Selection, well maybe another story.

Cee Gee wrote:Among all the issues with the schedule I hope next years allows us to have Narine again. He’s been a joy to watch.

Hi Cee Gee - although I would like to see Narine shift himself more in the field, I agree with your point and would also like to see him back with us next year. His bowling returns have been incredibly economical and consistent.

Jedrich wrote:

Cee Gee wrote:Among all the issues with the schedule I hope next years allows us to have Narine again. He’s been a joy to watch.

... apart from his fielding :-)

Hi Jedrich - you beat me to it!

So we somehow failed to get 4 runs without losing a wicket in the last over against a bowler who had the 7th worst economy rate of ALL TIME in T20 cricket.

Vauxhall wrote:So we somehow failed to get 4 runs without losing a wicket in the last over against a bowler who had the 7th worst economy rate of ALL TIME in T20 cricket.

I know it's harsh to criticise Jamie Overton after his efforts had pretty much single-handedly put us into such a strong position going into the final over. But the fact is that if he hadn't been run out we'd have effectively needed 2 runs from the final 2 balls to win which he and Laurie Evans between them were well capable of doing.

Anyway onwards and (hopefully) upwards. Let's hope we can get some sort of revenge in Scarborough next week.

Still trying to get over how we lost that.

so many good things last night. Narine was as good as usual with his bowling, Jacks bowled very well, and was impressed by Atkinson. Ovetons batting (bar his last ball) was brilliant, pure striking

however, so many bad things. The last 10 overs were awful. They scored 100 runs in those 10, and Narine bowled 4 of them. The other 6 were rubbish, they should have got nowhere near that total. Why didnt Overton bowl? some of the fielding had a lot to be desired, (Tom letting 1 through his legs) and effectively the 2 no balls lost us the game, 1 of which we got a wicket off. The batting line up was wrong. Didnt have that much of a problem with Burns opening and he & Tom (after an awful start) had 1 good over (4th i think). BUT the shot by Tom was awful, as was the 1 by Pope, having just scored a 4.
Finally, having obviously checked with the umpires before the start of the last over, they knew they needed only 4 runs if we didnt lose a wicket. How did we struggle to do that.

and on the ECB debate, I cant believe that Jordan (as captain) and Sam didnt ask to play last night, the same way that apparently Willey did. Willey made a huge difference to them.

i mentioned earlier in the thread that we had a team that didnt play that would have won. Would this team had done any better last night
Roy, Smith, Curran, Geddes, Foakes, Pollard, Clark, Jordan, Steel, McKerr Topley
I think that team would have chased that total down

In the end, after a fantastic start to the tournament, we only won 1 of our last 5, and that was against poor Kent side

One win in the last five, and that off the last ball. Some brainless cricket, including the folly of always chasing

We always seem to go to pieces in the latter stages of this competition. England calls don't help of course, and the problem is a ridiculously crowded fixture list: 3 T20 and 3 OD games against India simply because they are here. Really with all the T20 Leagues + IPL what is the point of International T20s? Money but it further dilutes the game and buggers up the schedule even more. Really it's all rather McDonald's and England are importing it into Tests.