Ben Foakes hit a career-best unbeaten 174 as Surrey’s Rothesay County Championship match with Warwickshire ended in a draw at Edgbaston
Foakes amassed 174 from 361 balls, the last 107 of them in a tenth-wicket stand of 158 in 58 overs with Matt Fisher (40, 145 balls) as Surrey totalled 504 in reply to Warwickshire’s 665 for five.
On a flat pitch, the game’s third innings finally began at 3.15pm on the final day. Surrey, following on, reached 15 without loss before a downpour arrived to wash out the final session.
Surrey resumed on the last morning on 369 for nine, still 147 short of the follow on figure, but Warwickshire knew they had to polish off the first innings quickly if they were to press for victory. The excellent Foakes ensured that didn’t happen. He soon advanced down the pitch to strike Rob Yates for successive glorious sixes; the first took him to 9,000 first class runs and the second to his 17th first class century (from 197 balls).
At 131, the partnership between Foakes and Fisher became a tenth-wicket record for Surrey against Warwickshire, beating the 130 by Bert Strudwick and Bill Hitch at Edgbaston in 1911. At lunch, it stood at 141, 32 short of the county’s tenth-wicket best against anyone – 173 by Andy Ducat and Andy Sandham against Essex at Leyton in 1921. They advanced to within 15 of the record when Fisher edged Ed Barnard to wicketkeeper Alex Davies. The partnership had lasted for three hours and 46 minutes.
Despite having just spent 178.2 overs in the field, Warwickshire enforced the follow on with a minimum of 43 overs left in the day. After just five of those overs, a terminal thunderstorm arrived that forced the teams off with Surrey 15/0. No further play was possible so the match was drawn.
Surrey took 11 points from the match, with Warwickshire taking 13.
“We had one job to do and just had to bat as long as possible.”
Ben Foakes spoke to Mark Church after a career-best innings from our wicketkeeper.
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— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) May 12, 2025
- For more information about Rothesay, please visit http://www.ecb.co.uk/about/who-we-are/our-partners/rothesay
