Report: Surrey v Warwickshire, County Championship

Day Four

Warwickshire fell to a nine-wicket defeat at the Kia Oval as champions Surrey rounded off yesterday’s good work to go 21 points clear at the top of the Vitality County Championship.

Dom Sibley finished unbeaten on 46 and Ollie Pope 13 not out after Surrey captain Rory Burns, on 30, hit Jacob Bethell’s left arm spin straight to Alex Davies at deep mid on.

Surrey began the final day needing 58 more runs to win, after resuming on 31 without loss chasing a modest fourth innings target of 89 for a third successive Division One win.

Warwickshire fought hard to keep Surrey at bay, first recovering to reach 343 in their first innings after initially slipping to 167 for six and then battling back with the ball to peg Surrey to 349 for eight in reply after they had been 308 for three.

But Jamie Smith’s high-class 155, and his 115-run ninth wicket stand with Sean Abbott, ultimately earned Surrey a 121-run first innings lead – before West Indies Test paceman Kemar Roach produced a magnificent exhibition of fast-medium swing bowling to take six for 46 as Warwickshire were dismissed for 209 second time around.

The visitors also suffered the bad luck of a freak injury to fast bowler Craig Miles, whose five for 43 – and three wickets in three overs with the second new ball – had done much to keep Warwickshire in the game late on day two.

Miles, jumping in celebration of his fifth wicket, went over on his right ankle and did not bat in Warwickshire’s second innings.

Warwickshire, who bowled their spinners on the final morning to make sure they were not docked a point for a slow over rate across the game, take four points from their first defeat of the campaign.

Warwickshire captain Alex Davies said: “Ed Barnard had an excellent game for us with his hundred in the first innings and a second innings 44 only ended by a brilliant caught and bowled by Sean Abbott.

“We battled hard to stay in the match but Craig Miles’ freak ankle injury right at the end of day two was a big blow to us and Surrey are a really top side who showed their quality.”

Day Three

Surrey seamer Kemar Roach took a decisive six for 46 to reduce Warwickshire to 209 all out in their second innings and leave the County Champions on the cusp of victory at the Kia Oval.

The hosts need just 58 more runs to seal a third straight win, openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley taking them to 31 without loss at stumps as they chase an 89-run target.

The game was finely poised before Jamie Smith, who began day three on 98, and Sean Abbott combined for a ninth wicket stand of 115 in little more than 18 overs. It hauled Surrey up to 464 all out from their overnight 327 for six in reply to Warwickshire’s first innings 343.

Roach, finding conventional and reverse swing with both new and older ball, took three of the first four wickets to fall before returning later to grab three more scalps in a wonderful exhibition of controlled fast-medium bowling.

Warwickshire’s hopes of fighting back to set Surrey a challenging fourth innings target were earlier further dashed when Abbott pulled off a stunning caught and bowled, low down from a fierce drive, to dismiss first innings centurion Ed Barnard for 44.

Roach struck in his second over with the new ball, pinning Warwickshire captain Alex Davies leg-before for three, and Jordan Clark produced an excellent delivery to have Will Rhodes caught behind for 21 after a second wicket partnership of 51 with Rob Yates.

Left-hander Yates played some lovely shots in his 68-ball 52 but fell to the second ball of Roach’s second spell when he aimed a pull at one that was not quite short enough for the stroke and lost his off stump. And Roach continued his familiar around-the-wicket angle to another left-hander, Dan Mousley, to have him lbw for two with a perfectly-pitched inswinger.

Warwickshire were rallied by a 75-run alliance for the fifth wicket between Sam Hain and Barnard, but Abbott’s athleticism ended Barnard’s 94-ball stay and Roach then returned for a spell at the Vauxhall End to bowl Jacob Bethell, shouldering arms, for four.

Roach also bowled Hain for a stubborn 34 and Aamir Jamal for one, both with inswingers of near-yorker length, and Dan Worrall polished off Warwickshire’s innings by trapping Ollie Hannon-Dalby in front of his stumps. Craig Miles was unable to bat due to an ankle injury sustained in yesterday’s penultimate over.

Resuming with a deficit of just 16 in reply to Warwickshire’s first innings of 343, Surrey soon lost Cameron Steel and Clark to a second new ball that was still only seven overs old at the start of play.

Steel chased a Jamal outswinger and edged behind to go without addition to his overnight four and Clark chopped on against Hannon-Dalby.

That left Surrey 349 for eight in the 93rd over but Smith and Abbott guided their side to maximum batting points in a record ninth wicket stand against Warwickshire.

Having denied Warwickshire a final bowling point, however, Smith aimed an expansive drive at Barnard and skied to deep extra cover where Davies took a fine tumbling catch.

Three balls later Worrall swished at Barnard, edged to Yates at slip and it was time for Warwickshire to face just one over of their second innings before the lunch interval – bowled by Dan Lawrence, and costing seven runs. It proved to be much tougher going against the Surrey quicks in the afternoon.

Warwickshire captain Alex Davies said: “I think Surrey have shown in this game why they are champions. They bowled really well today and have a great seam attack.

“I thought we did well in our first innings to get up to 343 but it was really unfortunate we lost Craig Miles to last night’s freak accident when he went over on his ankle after taking his fifth wicket and could not take part today.

“We missed Craig with the ball this morning, because he had bowled outstandingly well to take five yesterday and he couldn’t even go out to bat either because he can’t put any weight on it. We don’t know how long he will be out – it’s another injury problem and a few things have stacked up against us so far this season.”

Day Two

Three wickets in three overs with the second new ball by Craig Miles, who finished the day with superb figures of five for 43 after his late triple strike pegged Surrey back to 327 for six in reply to Warwickshire’s 343, gave the visitors a toehold at the end of the second day at the Kia Oval.

Miles bowled Foakes for 52 with a ball that kept low – not for the first time in the game – and then followed that up by pinning Dan Lawrence leg-before for three and, three balls later, having nightwatchman Kemar Roach magnificently held low and left-handed by a diving Rob Yates at second slip.

But Jamie Smith’s 98 not out from only 111 balls, and a 139-run fourth wicket stand with Ben Foakes, propelled champions Surrey towards parity at the halfway stage.

Smith remained unbeaten, however, with some imperious strokes so far bringing him two sixes and 14 fours, and in addition to Cameron Steel, not out on four at stumps, Surrey have all-rounders Jordan Clark and Sean Abbott still to bat as they bid to turn a slender 16-run deficit into a potentially match-defining first innings lead on day three.

The late drama involving Miles also included him rolling his right ankle in celebration at Roach’s wicket, with what was his final ball at the end of the day’s penultimate over, and limping immediately from the field for treatment.

Ollie Pope, meanwhile, is still searching for his first sizeable score of the season after contributing a middling 44 to Surrey’s first innings.

With openers Dom Sibley and Rory Burns making 64 and 40 respectively, Surrey batted solidly throughout the day – until that late loss of three wickets – in their attempt to establish a significant lead and put pressure on their opponents in the remainder of this game.

But England batsman Pope is enduring a lean run of form with only 79 runs from four innings to date in this season’s championship, and 198 from 12 first-class knocks overall since his majestic 196 at Hyderabad in last winter’s opening Test against India. 

Here, coming in after Burns hit Will Rhodes’ medium pace to backward point in the 28^th over – and after the Surrey captain had put on 88 in two hours with Sibley – Pope initially overcame an edgy start to cruise towards what would have been a confidence-boosting half-century.

But, with tea approaching, Pope aimed a loose drive at a ball from Miles that shaped away just enough to catch the edge and fly straight to Yates stationed in a solitary widish slip position. 

Pope thumped his bat in disappointment, yet it was further reward for paceman Miles in a controlled eight-over afternoon spell of two for 24 that had earlier also brought him Sibley’s scalp, bowled off stump by one that kept a little low to beat the opener’s back-foot defensive stroke.

After tea, however, Smith and Foakes seemed like they were wrenching the match away from Warwickshire in an increasingly aggressive and well-judged 31-over partnership.

Smith had off-driven the last ball of the afternoon session, from Miles, for his first boundary and there were more glorious strokes to follow from the 23-year-old as he reached his fifty from 65 balls. Foakes, meanwhile, was busy at the crease while also straight-driving Ollie Hannon-Dalby classily for one of his own fours.

Warwickshire captain Rhodes, giving himself a second spell, was crashed to the offside ropes as Smith took a couple of strides down the pitch to hit the ball at the top of the bounce. Soon after, Smith took two more sweetly-struck fours off Rhodes in the same over through extra cover and mid on.

Later, there was a pull for six off Jacob Bethell’s left arm spin, following a lofted four over mid on against the same bowler, a sublime extra cover four off Ed Barnard’s fast-medium and also a powerfully-driven six and four off successive Barnard deliveries.

The day started with Warwickshire, on 318 for eight overnight, seeing 28-year-old all-rounder Barnard quickly score the four runs he needed to complete a deserved sixth first-class hundred – and his first for the club since leaving Worcestershire at the start of last year.

Dan Worrall, however, luckless on day one, produced an off-cutter to clip the top of Miles’ off stump as he decided to shoulder arms on 29, a creditable innings by the No 10 in a stand with Barnard of 66.

And Barnard, on 108 from 179 balls and attempting to hit out for a third batting bonus point, then skewed Lawrence’s off spin to cover in the next over to end both his own superlative knock and Warwickshire’s first innings.

Warwickshire First Team Coach Mark Robinson said: “I think we’ve tried hard but we’ve not executed much, I think there’s a lot in that wicket and we’re a little disappointed with how we’ve bowled as a unit. I think if you hit the pitch hard, as we did at the end, there’s a bit of variable bounce.

“What we have done is we’ve hung in there and had a bit of success at the end with Milo [Craig Miles], and it was a lovely little flurry. If you hit that pitch hard, get your fields right and protect your boundaries then there’s something there all the time.

“We’re in this game but we have to see how Milo is having rolled his ankle. We’ll see how he scrubs up in the morning.”

Day One

Ed Barnard led some determined resistance by the Warwickshire lower order after Surrey’s relentless seam attack, spearheaded by Jordan Clark, looked to have put the county champions in control at the Kia Oval. 

Clark took four wickets to help reduce Warwickshire to 167 for 6 but Barnard, unbeaten on 96 at stumps, shared stands of 55 with Michael Burgess and Aamer Jamal to wrest back the initiative as his side reached 318 for 8.

Much of the first day had unfolded like so many in recent years at the Kia Oval. Surrey bowled first on a green-tinged pitch offering good pace and carry and their seam attack worked their way steadily through the Bears batting.

There was some lavish swing with the new ball for Dan Worrall, who went wicketless despite beating the bat on numerous occasions, but Rob Yates and Alex Davies made serene early progress with Davies, the first division’s leading scorer, passing 500 runs as they rattled up 59 in 12 overs before Clark nipped one back into the left-hander with his 11th ball to make the breakthrough.

The returning Sean Abbott took just seven deliveries to make an impact, when he shaped one back into Yates’s pads and just before lunch Sam Hain, making his first appearance of the season, was undone by some clever bowling from Kemar Roach, who bowled a succession of inswingers before moving one enough off the seam the other way to take the edge.

After lunch Clark picked up his second wicket when a quicker delivery trapped Dan Mousley on the crease working to leg. Clark struck again in the seventh over of a consistently probing spell from the pavilion end by finding some extra bounce off a good length to end Will Rhodes’ patient resistance courtesy of a regulation catch at slip by former Bear Dom Sibley.

Roach returned shortly afterwards and needed just six balls to have Jacob Bethell held by Ollie Pope at second slip to leave Warwickshire in strife 167 for 6. 

But Barnard was established by then and found a reliable ally in Burgess, who played all his age-group junior cricket in Surrey. They added 55 in 17 overs either side of tea with Barnard reaching his fifty with his sixth boundary when he slapped a full toss from Cameron Steel to square leg.

Clark broke the stand when Burgess got in a tangle and lost his leg stump as he played on but Jamal gave Barnard more solid support, even when Surrey took the new ball. He was on 25 when he tried to leave a delivery that flicked his glove and give Abbott a wicket with the first ball of a new spell. 

Pope hadn’t quite managed to hold on to a tough chance diving to his left at first slip when Barnard was on 76 – a rare misjudgement by the phlegmatic 28-year-old who has so far faced 156 balls and hit nine fours. He will be hoping to push beyond his hundred tomorrow if Craig Miles and last man Oliver Hannon-Dalby can replicate the fortitude shown by their lower-order colleagues.

Warwickshire’s Will Rhodes said: “We were going to bowl first because the wicket is different to a lot in the country because it’s got good pace and carry so we had to adapt. We stuck at it, there were partnerships all the way down and it’s ended up being a great day for us.

“Ed Barnard has been an outstanding signing for us. There seems to be a thing where he always misses out on the flat pitches but he cashed in today. Hopefully he can get those four runs he needs tomorrow and we can get another bonus point. He works as hard as anyone wherever he’s asked to bat and everyone is really pleased with how he’s played. It will be a sweet feeling for him if he can get his hundred.

“Surrey’s attack is the best in the country. They have blown teams away in the last few years so that’s why we’re so pleased to have batted the whole day. They are relentless, there is no real respite and Jordan Clark is a proven performer so to get 320 with eight down puts us in a good position.”