Batty spins Surrey to victory on record breaking night

Surrey have beaten the Middlesex Panthers by 28 runs via the D/L method, as 5 personal and partnership records are broken or equalled.

As he did yesterday against Essex, Rory Hamilton-Brown won the toss and elected to bat first. There was just one change in the starting X1, which was Meaker had come in for Jade Dernbach. Even though Maynard and Tremlett were named in the squad, they both missed out on selection.

Davies took a couple of boundaries off the second over from Crook to get the innings going, but Crook fought back with the last ball, bowling the Surrey skipper all ends up. And on the very next ball, Davies was caught behind off Roland-Jones’ first delivery, and Surrey were once again in trouble at 14-2 in the 3^rd.

And it didn’t get any better, as after a couple of tight overs, de Bruyn was trapped in front in Gareth Berg’s first over, and we were in disarray at 32-4 when Roy was caught and bowled by former Surrey loanee Tom Smith. We were in danger of capitulating, but Gary Wilson and Matthew Spriegel had other ideas, as the pair set apart a record partnership.

They had to rebuild the innings before they accelerated, and they did it perfectly, still ticking the score over at a reasonable rate. They brought up the first 50 partnership for Surrey in the competition this year, and were compiling a competitive total. Wilson hit the first maximum of the campaign also and took their side over 100 in the 16^th over.

Spriegel started to accelerate also, putting Roland-Jones into the top tier of the grandstand twice overall in his innings. They brought up the 100 partnership in the 17^th over, going past our previous best of 95 for the 5^th wicket between Symonds and Walters in 2010.

They both registered unbeaten half centuries, Spriegel 53 and Wilson 54, which represented both of their previous best in this form of the game. We finished on 149-4 off the 20 overs, and the partnership was simply superb between the pair, equalling the record 5^th wicket partnership in all English Domestic T20 of 117, which is jointly held by van Jaarsveld and Walker for Kent 6 years ago.

We got off to a perfect start in the Middlesex innings, when off Meaker’s first ball of the competition, Denly struck the ball straight down the throat of Spriegel at deep midwicket. But that wicket didn’t deter the Middlesex pair of Malan and Stirling, who found the boundary at regular intervals, including taking 3 off one Nannes over, and the Irishman launched Spriegel for the first maximum of the innings.

But the man who is so good at breaking a partnership, Gareth Batty, was brought into the attack and had Malan trapped in front in his first over. And Batty was at it again in his next over, when he bowled the dangerman Stirling for a 23 ball 36, and then bowled Gareth Berg first ball. He had taken 3-3 off his 1.2 overs, and even though he couldn’t complete a hat trick, he had pulled Surrey right back into the game.

And that man Batty was at it again in his 3^rd over, when Rogers mishit the ball down the ground and was caught by Meaker. A 4^th wicket for Batty. And Ansari was in on the act in the next over, when he caught Dexter on the crease, and trapped him LBW. Middlesex had fallen from 64-1 to 81-6, in the space of 5 and a half overs.

The skipper brought himself into the attack, and made an immediate impact, having Simpson caught in the deep by Roy with his first ball. And the same pair worked in tandem once again 3 balls later, when Crook was caught first ball brilliantly by Roy at short extra cover.

That was the last wicket to fall in the game, as the rain came with Middlesex on 99-8, and the hosts were behind Duckworth Lewis by over 30 runs, so the game was ours.

We had won by 31 runs via D/L and even though our top order once again didn’t fire, we have managed to pull another win out of the bag. At 32-4, it looked dismal, and we were looking at less than 100, but the partnership between Spriegel and Wilson was outstanding, showing that you don’t have to go gung-ho straight away in Twenty 20, and you have plenty of time to play yourself in.

The bowlers were once again fantastic, but at 64-1 it didn’t look good, so Batty was called upon and he didn’t disappoint. Picking up career best figures of 4-13, to go along with best T20 scores for Wilson and Spriegel, who broke one partnership record and equalled another. Even though our batsman aren’t firing, we are still picking up victories, and when they do fire, it will be something special.