Batty and Meaker add respectability

A 9^th wicket partnership of 64 between Gareth Batty and Stuart Meaker has added some respectability to Surrey’s Day one exploits at Taunton, after the batsmen failed once again.

It’s about time our tail gave us some runs and even though we shouldn’t have to rely on them, today Batty (39) and Meaker (30*) produced the goods just at the right time to keep us in Day One.

Rory Burns and debutant Dom Sibley gave us a slow, but solid, start to the game after we chose to bat first, but an hour into the day’s play our top order collapsed. Losing a few wickets for not so many runs has been an all too frequent occurrence this season and today we fell from 31-0 to 31-3 in the space of a couple of overs, with Sibley (10), Amla (0) and Burns (21) losing their wickets to Meschede and Thomas. Sibley will take some solace that he scored more than the world’s best batsmen in his opening First Class knock, but it was very disappointing that none of the top 3 could score big.

And when Solanki went to Chawla in the last over before lunch for 14, it capped off a terrible session for Surrey at 61-4, and showed why we are scratching away at the bottom of the first division with only one win to our name in 13 matches. Zander de Bruyn once again got a start and moved onto 30 after the lunch break, before he was trapped LBW to give Meschede his 3^rd wicket. For a man of the age of de Bruyn to keep getting starts and not converting is a worry and is why he shouldn’t be picked in the side ahead of Wilson, for example.

Then followed a strange period of cricket, where Steve Davies was joined by Zafar Ansari and they batted extremely slowly. Ansari especially had turned into extreme-block mode, as it took him 42 balls to get off the mark. I don’t mind it too much if Ansari took his time and then converted his start into a big score, but he was removed by Trego for a 70 ball 8 shortly after. In a game that we need to win Ansari was playing particularly negative and he didn’t seem to look to score runs. He has played like that whenever he has got a chance in this format this season and that needs to change if he is to become a firm fixture in our line up.

We lost our 7^th wicket just after the tea interval when Davies was caught for 38, as it continued to look bleak for us on the first day of a County Championship match yet again. However, Batty and Meaker decided to play more positively than the previous batsmen and it paid off with 11 boundaries coming up in the stand between the pair, including one six by Batty off Chawla. The captain went just before bad light brought a premature end to the day’s play, but he did a good job.

Somerset will without doubt be the happier of the two sides to keep us to 195-8 after we chose to bat first, but we could easily have been bowled out for under 150 if our tail had been up to their usual standards. The batsmen will be disappointed with their efforts, but as always you don’t know how good the pitch is until both batsmen bat on it, but Batty and Meaker both showed that run scoring is certainly possible.