A look at everything that happened on the second day of play between Surrey and Hampshire at The Kia Oval in the LV= County Championship.
WHAT HAPPENED
Hashim Amla stroked an unbeaten 215 from 367 balls and Ollie Pope hit 131 as Surrey moved remorselessly to 513 for 3 and into an impregnable position against Hampshire at the halfway point of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at the Kia Oval.
Amla and Pope added 257 in 62 overs for the third wicket, a Surrey record against Hampshire at the Oval, on a day of relentless accumulation for the two high-class South Africa and England Test batsmen.
By stumps, Surrey were a massive 421 runs ahead, having shot out Hampshire for a mere 92 on day one, and on course for a first win of the championship season at the fourth attempt.
For the veteran Amla, who began the day on 59, it was his seventh first-class double-hundred and an eye-catching return to form after picking up a pair in Surrey’s defeat against Middlesex at Lord’s last week.
Resuming on 131 for 1, Surrey lost their captain Rory Burns for 80 after 40 minutes’ play, the England Test opener bowled off his pads aiming a pull at left-arm spinner Liam Dawson.
Burns added just 19 runs to his overnight score but had already produced one sublime flick off his pads for four off Kyle Abbott and departed looking distraught at missing out on a really big score after taking his season’s run tally to 256 from six innings, with three scores above 50, at an average of 42.66.
Amla and Pope, however, simply went on and on as Hampshire – who started the match top of group 2 with two wins from their first three fixtures – were made to suffer.
Ian Holland did beat Pope, on 6, with a leg-cutter, and on 64 the talented 23-year-old edged Abbott through the gap between two slips and gully for four soon after the former South Africa fast bowler took the second new ball.
Amla, similarly, only had a few alarms as he cruised to a 53rd first-class hundred – early on being beaten by an Abbott nip-backer and later seeing teenage seamer Scott Currie produce a superb leg-cutter which pitched on middle stump and bounced sharply to beat the outside edge.
He also survived a difficult chance to gully on 184, slashing at Currie, but otherwise Amla and Pope simply caressed a stream of fine shots on both sides of the wicket, finding the gaps seemingly at will. Between them, they collected 37 fours, and after Pope was well-caught at backward point off Currie the 20-year-old Jamie Smith arrived to ease to 66 not out and help Amla add a further 100.
SCORECARD & LIVE CLIPS
Click here to see the full scorecard with clips of each key moment available to view too.
TEAM LINEUPS
Surrey XI: Burns, Stoneman, Amla, Pope, Foakes, Smith, Clark, Clarke, Overton, Roach, Virdi
Hampshire XI: Weatherley, Holland, Alsop, Northeast, Vince, Dawson, McManus, Currie, Abbott, Wheal, Mohammad Abbas
ELSEWHERE IN GROUP 2
Every Surrey home match will be available to view either on kiaoval.com or Sky Sports this season. Away matches will be streamed by the county hosting the match and shared here where possible.
The best way to get your seat at The Kia Oval when restrictions allow is with a 2021 Membership, starting from £69 for adults and £20 for U16s.
