Lancs away

If there's cloud and rain around this morning, it should be tailor-made to our seam attack, but also Bailey and Williams. Remember the first morning of the season under similar conditions at the same venue last year, when only Sibley sticking around  prevented us being skittled before lunch, ahead of Cam Steel's heroics. Bowl first and get them out for under 250. The pitch should be too wet to offer Lyon much help in the last knock.

Here's my preview of the County Championship clash between @lancscricket and @surreycricket which starts today at Old Trafford http://www.ovalworld-online.com/prevlansurcc2024.htm

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

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

Toss has been delayed - Teams will be announced at the toss

Lancashire v Surrey - no play before lunch

No play at all today.

Out of 9 games only 3 have started. Someone needs shooting for this crazy scheduling. Or actually the whole ECB in front of the firing squad. It's insane trying to play 1stClass cricket in early April. It does no good at all apart for securing the fucking 100 in August. Excuse the profanity but this madness has to stop.

Chinaman wrote:Out of 9 games only 3 have started. Someone needs shooting for this crazy scheduling. Or actually the whole ECB in front of the firing squad. It's insane trying to play 1stClass cricket in early April. It does no good at all apart for securing the fucking 100 in August. Excuse the profanity but this madness has to stop.

Sadly this won't stop; I think we have to be realistic in accepting that no cricket in early April would mean that the Championship season has been shortened.

MatthewC wrote:

Chinaman wrote:Out of 9 games only 3 have started. Someone needs shooting for this crazy scheduling. Or actually the whole ECB in front of the firing squad. It's insane trying to play 1stClass cricket in early April. It does no good at all apart for securing the fucking 100 in August. Excuse the profanity but this madness has to stop.

Sadly this won't stop; I think we have to be realistic in accepting that no cricket in early April would mean that the Championship season has been shortened.

Well yes perhaps. But honestly are these early games even worth playing?

Maybe its a good way of getting potentially our hardest match of the season out of the way and drawn, we should play at Old Trafford away every year this week in April.

Somerset and then Kent next up in Championship so 2 games we should be strong favourites.

Maybe Gus Atkinson will have rested enough to be allowed to play in one of them?

Is Gus Atkinson actually that good? A bit overrated I think.

Gus Atkinson is improved to the extent he is now considered one of our first-choice seam bowlers along with Roach, Worrall, Overton, Clark and Lawes, rather than on the B-list along with the likes of McKerr, Dunn, Taylor etc. We need to be able to rotate our A-list bowlers, to cope with injury and prevent those not yet injured from being overbowled.

And no, we shouldn't settle for county championship cricket being played in the first week of April. Combining the two short-form competitions (and I don't really care whether they bowl 100 or 120 balls) would release a month to enable a 14-match programme to start two weeks later and finish two weeks earlier. We have to stop being grateful for the crumbs from the ECB's table.

We can't really miss him, on account of he'd hardly played anyway.

Surrey won toss, and put Lancs into bat.

No play before lunch on Day 2

Confirmation of XI
Surrey
Rory Burns(c)
Dom Sibley
Ollie Pope
Dan Lawrence
Jamie Smith
Ben Foakes(wk)
Cameron Steel
Jordan Clark
Jamie Overton
Tom Lawes
Kemar Roach

Just started. 80 overs scheduled. We're bowling.

I’d forgotten Lancs dehydrate their pitch like it’s going out of fashion. Virdi should have played. But what a bowling change from Roree!

Bit concerned that Lawrence is getting some turn early on.with Lyon in their side it’s looking like the y have prepared a pitch with some spin,and were batting last!!

dougieginn wrote:Bit concerned that Lawrence is getting some turn early on.with Lyon in their side it’s looking like the y have prepared a pitch with some spin,and were batting last!!

Lawrence has bowled 15 overs out of 47 bowled so far today and Steel is yet to bowl.

Bizarre to see Lawrence bowling so much on the first day of the match, and season. The issue for me is not to much why has Steel not also bowled, but if we think the conditions demand so much spin why are we relying on two part-time spinners, and not selecting the one specialist spinner that we have retained? I don't buy the argument that we can't afford to pick a non-batting spinner when conditions require, especially while we have Pope and Foakes available.

I haven't seen any of the match but from the bowling figures would I be right to think that Overton has done his usual method of banging the ball in short to try to knock the batsman out rather than pitching it up fast and straight?

At least they're not scoring very quickly so bonus points will be hard earned.

Well this is lovely

My man Steel, always delivers.
But we could be batting tonight and 3 down!

This is not dissimilar to the final match last year at Hampshire.
If our two ordinary spinners can do this, what will Lyon and Hartley be able to do?
At least there's only 2 days left and we should avoid the follow on.

kjb wrote:This is not dissimilar to the final match last year at Hampshire.
If our two ordinary spinners can do this, what will Lyon and Hartley be able to do?
At least there's only 2 days left and we should avoid the follow on.

Agreed ,if two part time spinners can get 9 out 10 wickets,what can two Test Spinners do??

People don't half chat some ****.

So basically unless Lyon goes tonto tomorrow, we will have "Steel outbowled Lyon" for the next three years. At least that would be a fairer analysis than "Virdi outbowled Ashwin" (given the relative strength of the two batting sides then and here...)

9 wickets falling to part time spin in April? Haha