Hamster at the Wheel
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Championship: Surrey v Yorkshire – Brit Oval, 18th – 21st April
Day Three
I’ve no idea what the lads were supping last night – as per usual I was stuck in the laundrymat till the early hours, washing the first team jock-straps and watching Joe Sayers’ Spiderman briefs whiz round on spin cycle. But whatever they got up to, it left them in the mood this morning, as the seamers steamed in and were rewarded when Ramprakash was caught behind off Dizzy. It was a relief to see the back of him, as I don’t think I’ve seen such dogged determination since someone super-glued a pound coin next to the Chief Exec’s car parking space.
Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves (with the help of a little brute force and a YCCC letter opener)
Gradually the spinners were brought on from both ends to tick the overs off till the new ball, with Rudolph becoming the third leggy we used in the innings. At some point this summer, Yorkshire will select Lawson and we’ll be playing four, which must be as clear a sign as any of the approaching rapture.
As we neared the 80th over, Hoggard and Gough came back on and a Hoggy loosener with the old ball was nicked behind to Brophy. Next over Gough got two in two and Brez moved into fourth slip, only for the hat-trick ball to be worked off the pads for a single. But when Goughie got his man next over, he stood there, mid wicket, hands on hips, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. You know what he’s like.
Yorkshire’s hermit like Captain is reluctantly lured in front of the cameras
The decision not to enforce the follow-on will have raised a few eyebrows, but it was a sound one in my opinion, given that the wicket’s starting to show signs of wear. Not ‘keypad of Shane Warne’s mobile’ type wear, but enough to interest the spinners. So it’s not a surface you want to bat on last and now is the time to make quick runs and give ourselves the luxury of setting attacking fields for Surrey’s last knock.
The afternoon session saw our openers lay the platform for later acceleration, whilst the instructions given at tea must have been obvious to everyone watching, as White smacked the first two deliveries of the evening session to the boundary. But from then on, upping the run rate resulted in a succession of Yorkshire batters perishing as they played a series of ever more elaborate shots. After this, it looks like we might have another season where we take ‘valuable lessons’ from one-day games rather than any points.
Yorkshire’s one-day batting: All the controlled acceleration of a Richard Hammond test drive.
The only one to really come off was White, who by this time was seeing the ball like it was Donald Trump’s face – large and asking to be smacked. He played some huge sixes in his innings. Quite a few disappearing into the hidden reaches of the roped off stands, including some into the upper tier that required a team of fielders to go search them out. One of whom was an increasingly pissed off looking Jimmy Ormond, who clearly hadn’t planned on doing anything as strenuous as climbing stairs when he rolled into work this morning.
We eventually declared with about an hour to go, leaving Surrey a massive target and ourselves 109 overs to bowl them out. Now, I’ve no idea who writes Adil’s scripts but they’ve certainly given him the Midas touch. He’s been an absolute nightmare for Surrey during this match and they must be sick of the sight of him. As it seems that every time they’ve worked themselves through a session and built some initiative, up he pops with bat or ball to steal it away from them. With tonight’s last ball breakthrough being a case of mugging compared to the four-wicket GBH from the previous evening. So for the second night running he’s had us leaving the field on a high.
Young Adil tries not to stand on the end of his tie
We had to work hard today and still have a stiff task to force a result in this game, but if the bowlers find their rhythm tomorrow, we have a reasonable chance.
Si’ thee later,
Len
End of 3rd days play – Yorkshire 594/9dec & 266/7dec, Surrey 344 & 47/1
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