Who do we think actually plays? I can’t see OHD playing more than a couple. Doubt Norwell plays at all.
I suspect Maddy has been signed so Burgess can rest and won’t play every game. Expect Rhodes and Sibley will be given time off too.

Hope to see plenty of Johal, Simmons, Garrett, Brookes, and maybe a chance for Khan too. It’d a shame Bethell is just going to be carrying drinks in the hundred rather than getting actual white ball match experience.

To me it seems more of a case of missed opportunities with bat and ball. When the bowlers have stepped up like against Kent, the batting didn’t take advantage. Or when the batsmen have put good scores on the board, the bowling has repeatedly let sides off the hook.

For me though I still think the bowling is the bigger issue, it’s the best way to put pressure on teams, and we don’t do that enough. You have to take 20 wickets to win, and this bowling line up can’t take 20 cheaply enough. There’s limited wicket threat and as shown against Surrey, there’s barely any control in terms of economy too.

I think the time for big changes has gone. If that was going to happen it would have been before the Kent or Surrey matches.
I hope they bring in a big name overseas bowler for McAndrew. Bring Lamb back in for Wheal, and make them all fix the mess they’ve got themselves in.
You ditch the likes of Davies or Briggs now, you probably destabilise the team more than they already have with the way they’ve disrupted the squad and the great attitude from last season.

That is sickening. When you get beaten it always stings. But when it goes like that, it really feels gut wrenching.
Surrey batted well second innings and they did a really professional job on a pretty batting friendly deck at the end. But that position was manufactured by 2 pieces of horrendous umpiring that entirely changed the game. You take out the highest run scorer who’s set and looking comfortable. Then the second highest run scorer who’s just stroked 2 to the boundary.

It’s not all down to 2 decisions, but due to the timing and the players involved. Those 2 decisions have a much bigger impact than if those were given on the morning of day 1.

Interesting there seems to be a fair bit of anger from the Warwickshire players.

OHD seemed to be saying something with a bit of a sneer to Billy Taylor after that Amla LBW was turned down. Plenty of throws going flying in with venom.
You wonder if they feel really hard done by after the events of this morning.

Granted 4 others fell. But of those 4, only one of those was a recognised batsman. McAndrew can bat but he’s hardly an all rounder. And Norwell and OHD are 10 and 11 for a reason. You sort of expect that from the tail end. It’s the fact the tail was exposed that caused the issue, and the tail was exposed because of the 2 decisions.

And in my opinion it’s not just that 2 decisions were poor, that’s pretty common now, as the standard of umpiring seems to tumble. It’s just how extremely poor they were, that they were in such quick succession, at a really crucial moment in the match, and to cap it off it’s against our 2 highest run scorers this season. It was essentially the worst possible scenario, and through no fault of the players.

I think the issue we disagree on isn’t that they shouldn’t have been circumspect. It’s that I can’t see how Hain and Burgess weren’t. Hain went after a “pie” and didn’t hit it, and got given out.
Burgess was playing a similar shot at a ball going down the leg side, missed it and got a very poor LBW.
Neither had been clearing the front leg and swinging for the fences. They played the exact shot you’d expect them to play. What could they have done differently?
That’s why it’s annoying. You can’t execute everything perfectly, but they made the right decisions, and were unfairly and incorrectly punished for it.
If someone could tell me what they’d expect those 2 players to do differently, other than smack it to the boundary, I’d be all ears but I can’t see what they did wrong.

The standard of umpiring all year has been poor and over the last few years only getting worse.
Burgess and Hain absolutely triggered. Just shocking for both. Hain nowhere near it. Burgess was a yard down the pitch. Swinging a long way down.

I’m not sure I can criticise any of them in terms of approach. They were doing what Surrey did. Put away the bad ball and got poor decisions. Batting an extra 10 overs for 20 runs would arguably have made no difference. Then saying he should of got bat on it is the same as saying he shouldn’t have played the shot if you get given out caught behind when you didn’t hit it. It’s an irrelevance, it should never matter because the umpire should never be giving those sort of decisions out.

Burgess has been coming down the pitch all season, to negate the swing and prevent decisions like this. Considering he’s got almost 800 runs at 50, I’d say it’s working. It’s also the exact same approach Pope took against OHD in this match, and we’ve seen a number of opposing internationals take that approach in tests.

Excellent day. I’d try up the scoring rate tomorrow morning, build the lead towards 300, remove the chance of losing. Then put them in just before lunch.
If these 2 stay in for the first 30 minutes then accelerate, Burgess already has history of smacking this Surrey attack, and McAndrew and even Norwell can both give it a whack.

Let’s not forget the reason he was banned for the first match of the season too…..

Shame for him personally, he had battled hard, but you’re right, a really soft poor dismissal.

6 overs until the new ball, build as much of a lead as possible before then, and then see it out.
Most important thing here is to not lose the same way as against Lancashire. Everyone would have taken a draw coming into this.

Considering it looks like Gloucestershire could lose to Northants; Somerset are definitely going to draw; plus Kent could be under pressure to save the game tomorrow, the points from a draw would go a long way. And Somerset have played a game less than us, and have Gloucestershire first game back in September.

I wish him the best, hopefully it’s minor but ideally won’t be able to bowl again this match.
Benjamin has really lead a charmed life so far, but I’m not complaining, we’ve earned a bit of luck after that incident with the bails.
Just get to lunch 2 down and then they can set about building a lead.

Got to say I was disappointed by the bowling.
The boundary count being so heavily towards Surrey showed how many bad balls we bowled on a pitch that was clearly offering plenty. And having them 8 down for basically the same score for them to get a 60 run lead could be crucial.
Only time will tell, but I think the bears got a decent score on that pitch and Surrey have been massively let off the hook.

This is bizarre. Turns out on a cricket pitch that is offering swing and seam, when you pitch it up and keep a tight line you get wickets and bowl dot balls.
But when you bang it in half way down, or bowl both sides of the stumps, you get smacked to the boundary.

Who knew?

Not a great start. Got 2 wickets but the bowlers are spraying it everywhere.
Looks like they’re almost trying to hard, trying to take a wicket every ball, rather than 4th stump line, build pressure, make the batsmen make an error.
Surrey were excellent in that regard. Happily kept the ball on a length outside off stump and built pressure.

I do feel as though apart from Rhodes and Benjamin, Surrey had to earn the wickets, Davies, Hain, Sibley and Burgess all got good balls. And when you look at the pitch, the bowling attack and remember that Surrey chose to bowl, I don’t think we’ve done too badly so far. It seems like there’s always something in it for the bowlers. And hopefully with a stronger attack this match, we can take advantage of that.

The scoring rate is an on going issue though. Just seems to push pressure further down the order. You think we were 4 down after 54 overs. But we’d only just made 100. 200-4 off 50 looks very different for a bowlers mentality, probably only have 1 slip instead of the 3 they’ve been able to keep in. Just seems self-defeating.

It’s always been my opinion that the Birmingham League was detrimental to the production of County quality products. It’s almost too competitive. The money involved now is too often about results first, rather than persevering with young prospects. So if a player isn’t already in the system, it’s hard to force their way in via league cricket. And the club has less reason to persevere with them.

Whereas for Surrey if you know players are getting competitive cricket in schools, you can prioritise resource to those not at larger schools, and offer opportunities via club sides. I’ve heard Surrey, Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Sussex have paid premier league clubs to take on certain players and give them the opportunity.
Surrey also help fund players, with potential, but come from limited economic means through clubs and age group tours and help with kit. Again theh can do this because they know 95% of the parents of kids in the system can afford it all by themselves.
So whilst Surrey have huge resources, and are lucky being in the wealthiest part of the country, they also direct those resources really well, and utilise them to their own ends, allowing for huge age groups squads and academy intakes.

The difference is the money. Not just the club, but the area.
They are the richest county by some way, and can afford to sign and keep players on staff who may never play a game. They don’t just sign their best youngsters, they sign anyone with the slightest talent. If they succeed at Surrey or elsewhere it looks good, if not financially it doesn’t effect them.

But it’s also the private schools. There’s a vast number of high quality cricket programmes in private schools in and around Surrey. Pope, Lawes and Burgess are all from Cranleigh. Sibley, Roy, Jamie Smith were Whitgift. The Currans were Wellington (paid for by Surrey). Burns, Jacks, Geddes, Jordan and Evans were all privately educated in Surrey schools too. So Surrey doesn’t just rely on the club game, and it’s own pathway, but it’s got this vast resource of rich schools who invest huge amounts into their cricket programmes to help them produce players.

He got a good ball, but it’s just irrelevant at this stage. Davies has got out so often to poor shots and average balls, that the excuse of a good ball doesn’t really apply for him anymore.
It’s not like Hain who we know is in good form and doesn’t throw his wicket away.

I do feel sorry for Benjamin. Who decided he was a number 3? Should be 5/6/7, just on a hiding to nothing.

I take full responsibility for that wicket. I apologise to everyone. I got ahead of myself. Also apologies for the almost certain impending collapse.

Got a feeling Surrey might have made a blunder here at the toss.
It looks green, and there was swing early on. But doesn’t seem like a particularly difficult deck (touch wood). Though maybe today will be the best bowling day and it’ll only get flatter.

If we can keep this partnership going; we might be able to do to Surrey what others have done to us this year. Post an above par score, keep them in the field and then have a strong bowling attack to put the pressure on.