Surrey 2nd XI v Nottinghamshire 2nd XI at Sutton

Nottinghamshire won the toss and batted first at Sutton but their batting performance was so inept that they gained no advantage from having taken first knock. They were unfortunate to lose Russell Warren who had to retire hurt with a back injury but only Paul McMahon (53) made any headway against a persistent Surrey attack. Apart from McMahon only 4 batsmen reached double figures. Nottinghamshire’s score of 146 should have been even lower as the luckless Tim Murtagh bowled a spell with the swinging new ball which had the batsmen in all sorts of trouble with nicks that did nor go to hand and balls that missed the stumps by a whisker. Jade Dernbach at the other end bowled with his usual aggression and fire to take 4-43. After the seam bowlers had reduced Notts to 88-6, Simon King went in like a weasel after the rabbits to snuff out the tail with 3-40.

The Surrey innings started mid-afternoon on the first day and soon showed there was not much wrong with the pitch on which Notts had looked so woeful. Although Chris Murtagh was dismissed d for a duck and Thompson (24) and Spriegel (12) were out with the score on 88 a magnificent stand of 199 between Stewart Walters and Arun Harinath set Surrey on the way to a big total. Walters reached his third century of the season scoring 137 from 166 balls with 20 fours and 2 sixes before he was caught by wicket-keeper Sutton off the bowling of Carter. Harinath delighted the crowd at his home club by reaching his maiden hundred for Surrey 2nd XI and then built on it to reach 157. His innings from 256 balls included 19 fours and a six and lasted a massive 304 minutes. With Chris Schofield adding a brisk 39, the Surrey innings closed on 443. Notts were unlucky when another of their players, Mark Footitt was injured and had to leave the field but spectators enjoyed the rare pleasure of seeing the Notts bowling coach Philip DeFreitas take the field as sub for the injured player.

Starting with a deficit of 297 Notts put up more of a fight in their second innings. Opener Samit Patel (73) put on 60 for the first wicket with Will Smith (29) and 114 for the second with Francois Du Plessis (81) but the highlight of the innings was 94* by Damian Shirazi, brought into the side as replacement for the injured Warren. The Surrey spin bowlers bore the brunt of the labour with Matthew Spriegel bowling 16 overs to take 2-42 and Simon King 1-90 from 28. Leg spinner Chris Schofield who spun the ball prodigiously, churned out a marathon of 32 overs which yielded him 5-15.

Surrey were left to score 86 in a minimum of 31 overs to win the match. Chris Murtagh added another duck to complete the pair in his farmyard but appropriately enough it was Walters (48*) and Harinath (15*), the centurions from the first innings who were together to bring up the victory. Walters, who in the first innings had brought his hundred up with a six, now hit another to win the match by 7 wickets. Surrey took maximum 22 points from this excellent performance while sorry Notts went home with a tally of only three.

Jennifer Booth

For a complete scorecard of this game please click here Surrey 2nds v Notts

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