Matthew Fisher claimed career-best six for 25 against his former county to turn a quite remarkable Rothesay County Championship match against Yorkshire on its head at the Kia Oval
Two days after being dropped from England’s third Test squad, Fisher was the spearhead as Yorkshire were tumbled out for 82 in their second innings after themselves dismissing Surrey for 83 in 30 overs, as 23 wickets fell on a tumultuous second day.
When the dust settled on the chaos, bad light forcing the players off at 6.22pm with 15.2 scheduled overs left unbowled, Surrey were 27 without loss as they chased 185 for victory.
In what promises to be a thrilling final month right across Division One, Surrey and Yorkshire – currently eighth and seventh in the table – are both looking to win this astonishing contest as they try to stay above the two relegation places below them.
The swinging ball has caused havoc so far, with Surrey proving unable to combat Yorkshire’s four seamers after Tom Lawes (4 for 36) had helped to finish off Yorkshire’s first innings for 185 in the morning session.
Dom Bess, the No 8, batted as well as anyone for 44 not out off 88 balls but then no one else in either the Surrey or Yorkshire line-ups scored more than Will Luxton’s 29 as 20 wickets fell in fewer than 59 overs in the second and third innings of the game.
Ollie Pope’s 21 for Surrey, indeed, was the only other individual score above 20, although Bess (17) was one of just three other players to reach double figures.
Fisher’s magnificent outswing bowling was backed up well by Lawes, Dan Worrall and Auqib Nabi, while for Yorkshire it was Jack White (3 for 14), Ben Coad (3 for 22), George Hill (2 for 17) and Matt Revis (2 for 19) who hunted as a highly-disciplined group.
Yorkshire were 133 for seven when play began, following the loss of 36 overs to rain and bad light on day one, and for a brief while the bat held sway with Bess and Kuldeep Yadav taking their eighth wicket stand to 57 in the opening 40 minutes.
Those runs seemed more than useful at the time but soon they were approaching gold-dust proportions. Kuldeep’s 17 ended when he edged Nabi to second slip and Coad – after a couple of meaty blows – edged Lawes behind on 12. Later in the same over last man White mishit back to bowler Lawes, who dived forward to hold a good low catch.
Surrey’s first innings was in trouble early on and they never recovered from losing Rory Burns in the sixth over, Dom Sibley in the eighth and Josh Blake in the ninth.
Burns (9) and Sibley (7) were removed by White, the former under-edging an attempted cut to a ball too full for the shot and the latter edging a leg-cutter to third slip. Left-hander Blake, on 2, was leg-before to Coad.
Surrey lunched at 24 for three and things did not improve afterwards, Ben Foakes (9) edging Hill’s medium pace to first slip and Hill then nipping one back at Adam Thomas to have him leg-before for a duck.
From 44 for five much depended on Pope but he drove too early at an away-swinging slower ball from Revis and spooned tamely to mid off.
Lawes went for 1, brilliantly held above his head at third slip by Bess from a flashing thick edge off Revis, and Nabi lifted a simple catch to mid off from a leading edge off Coad.
Fisher offered two defiant blows against Revis, a six over backward point and a square cut to the cover ropes, before nicking Coad to first slip. And Rahul Chahar also swung a legside six off Coad but then picked out deep mid wicket trying to repeat the shot against White.
Yorkshire, in the seven overs still to be bowled before tea, lost Adam Lyth and Sam Whiteman for ducks to successive balls from Fisher in the fourth over.
Then came a steady post-tea decline from 36 for two, Luxton lifting a drive to mid off, James Wharton (4) bowled by a Nabi beauty and Fisher hitting Jonny Bairstow’s off stump through a leaden-footed forward push.
Revis (3) was held at second slip and Hill (2) at second slip, both off Fisher, who then had Kuldeep leg-before for one.
Lawes had Bess caught behind and the innings ended when Coad (9) drove Worrall high to deep cover as Yorkshire were bowled out in 28.5 overs.
