Back in April, Cam Steel produced one of his finest bowling performances in a Surrey shirt, against Somerset at the Kia Oval, under batting-friendly conditions.
On the back of claiming his maiden first-class five-for against Lancashire, the leg spinner doubled down and bagged career-best match figures of nine for 146 from 47.5 overs – four for 50 in the first innings and five for 96 in the second – in Surrey’s first home game of the season, making him Division One’s leading wicket-taker after two rounds.
Bowling with a Kookaburra, which has a less prominent seam, goes soft fast and offers less lateral movement than the hand-stitched Dukes, Steel stepped up for his side against a quality Somerset batting unit, showcasing his skill, stamina, and consistency.
Below is a closer look at one of the best spells he delivered this summer, which came about on day three of that match.
Steel’s 18-over tenacious display of leg spin
Introduced into the attack in the 19th over, on a sunny day three afternoon, with Somerset 58 for two, trailing by 85 runs, Cam Steel’s task was to bowl in tandem with Dan Lawrence and conjure up some pressure on Somerset’s middle order.
Arrivals map of Steel’s 18-over spell (Pink: wickets; grey: 0s; white: 1s: blue: 2s, yellow: 4s; black: 6s)
Pitch map of Steel’s 18-over spell
Patience and control were going to be the key weapons for Surrey’s spin twins to find some joy as the conditions were now prime for batting, with the Kookaburra softening and losing its shine and the pitch flattening out.
The leg spinner understood the assignment and delivered a marathon 18-over spell for Rory Burns either side of tea, helping put Somerset in trouble on 152 for five, ahead only by nine runs at that point, once his shift ended. His efforts during this phase cost 41 runs and, significantly, fetched the wickets of Tom Lammonby and Tom Banton.
Steel’s strategy was straightforward and his discipline in executing it ensured the plan turned out to be an effective one. Trusting his leg spinners, Steel was looking for drift into the right-hander and turn away from the batter whilst keeping the stumps in play. To the left-handed Lammonby, the ball was drifting away and turning in, but the idea of attacking the stumps remained.
That he was bowling his stock ball with confidence and control was exemplified in the lengths he was consistently hitting (74% of his 108 balls landed between full and good length), the number of googlies he bowled (6), and his dot ball percentage (73%) during the spell.
The biggest pat on Steel’s back for his labour and tactic was the dismissal of Lammonby, especially the nature of how it came about. Coming in from over the wicket, Steel pulled Lammonby on the front foot, but dragged back his delivery enough to not let the tall left-hander reach the pitch of the ball, beating the Somerset number three’s defence and pinning him lbw for 51 with an appreciable amount of spin.
Another element that demonstrated that Steel had found great rhythm was the slight but frequent variations in speeds and trajectories throughout his spell. A leading example of that can be seen in the probing over Steel sends down to Banton before claiming his prized wicket.
In a one-two punch, Steel draws Banton forward with a slow, loopy leg spinner (clocked at 47 km/h) before beating him on the cut short and almost finding the breakthrough with a snappy flipper (clocked at 52 km/h). At the very start of his next over, Steel gets the better of Banton on that same cut shot for 11.
Check out the video below to see this sequence of play.
Late on day three and through to the final day, with a little help from the weather, Lewis Gregory dug out a captain’s innings of 80, combining with Kasey Aldrige (42) and Craig Overton (52*), to bat Somerset to a position of safety.
Back into the attack in the 114th over for his second spell with the second new ball, Steel cleaned up the tail, taking three wickets and completing his second first-class five-wicket haul, as the visitors were bowled out for 351.
Chasing 209 in 19 overs, Surrey nearly pulled off a swashbuckling run chase in a thrilling end to the final day as Lawrence (53* off 34 balls) and Jamie Smith (45 off 24 balls) provided an electric start to the Three Feathers. Somerset, however, pulled back the run rate with quick wickets and the match was eventually drawn, with Surrey 123 for five from 14 overs.
