Surrey Players Abroad: Part 4

While some of the Surrey first team squad are in the UK preparing for next season, a number of them have travelled abroad, plying their trade for a variety of teams in all formats of the game. Here is the 4^th instalment of how they have been getting on over the last 30 days.

Zander de Bruyn

Zander de Bruyn has finally found some form with the bat for the Highveld Lions in recent weeks, hitting 68 and 49 against Dolphins in the Sunfoil Series at the beginning of last month.  He then scored just 1 in the following match against Cape Cobras, but did take 8 wickets, including 5-39 in the first innings, with his right arm swing being used far more than with us last season. He backed that game up with another half century against Titans in mid-January, but in his next two games, he could only muster 35 in 3 innings, as he failed to find true consistency.

Jade Dernbach

No one will argue with me when I say that January wasn’t a very good month for Jade Dernbach. After impressing in the two warm up games against Delhi and India A, where he claimed 3 wickets at less than 5 an over, everything went downhill from there on in. With England winning the high-scoring first ODI, going at almost 7 an over and claiming 2 wickets perhaps wasn’t a bad return for Jade. However, when you are going at that economy rate all of the time, there must be a problem. He went for 73 in the 2^nd ODI, 45 off 5 overs in the 3^rd and 59 off 9 in the 4^th. However much I like Jade, and want him to do well for England, I think it was poor management from Ashley Giles to persist on picking him after the second ODI. A man who usually oozes confidence was really suffering in that department, not being able to bowl consistently throughout the tour. He has been left out of the ODI squad which will tour New Zealand this month, but has been named in the T20 squad for later this week.

Stuart Meaker

With Jade putting in a string of poor performances, you would have thought that Meaks would have had more of a go against India. However, he was left out of the side for all 5 ODI’s. He has been named in the Twenty20 squad to play New Zealand later this week, so hopefully he will get a game, before making the short trip to Australia with the England Lions. However, a neck injury may prevent him from doing so, with James Harris called up as cover.

Kevin Pietersen

Despite getting several good starts, KP didn’t really show his best form in the ODI series against India. A couple of 40’s and a 76 was the best it got from him, which to be fair was considerably better than most England batsman, but it never seemed as if he was in the best of nick. He has been rested from the Twenty20 squad to play New Zealand this week, before playing in the ODI series thereafter.

Jason Roy

Like last year, Jason Roy has travelled half way across the globe to play for the Chittagong Kings in the Bangladesh Premier League. However, it hasn’t gone as well as he would have hoped. With scores of 5 in the first two games of the tournament, he was dropped from the side and as yet hasn’t been reinstated in the side. Even though he hasn’t batted for long, what I have seen of him in the tournament was similar to how he played in the T20 last year, lacking confidence and being tentative in his play. Something needs to change, as he has a big role to play next season.

Dominic Sibley

After being named in England’s Under 19 squad to tour South Africa, 17 year old Sibley has made a fantastic start in the first few games. Before the series against South Africa Under 19’s, Sibley played a 2 day tour match against a Western Cape Invitational X1, where, even though they lost by 7 wickets, Sibley impressed in the second innings by scoring 54 before retiring out. In the first Youth Test, England Under 19’s comfortably beat South Africa, with Sibley scoring an important half century in the second innings, after being dismissed for 0 in the first. However, it was the second Test where he really shone, carrying his bat with a superb 112* in the first innings, with the next best England score being just 29. But he could only muster 23 in the second innings, with South Africa levelling the series at 1-1 with a 67 run victory.

Graeme Smith

Our skipper has had an up and down month with South Africa. They completed the test series against New Zealand with an innings victory, in which Smith scored 54. They then surprisingly lost the ODI series with New Zealand 2-1, despite Smith scoring a half century and a match winning century in the final game of the three match series. After playing New Zealand, Pakistan were the next opponents in a test series, and the first match was Smith’s 100^th test as captain; the first to ever do such a thing. They won the match with ease, with Smith scoring a half century and leading his side to a 211 run victory.