Surrey started their defence of the Second XI Championship with a solid batting display on the first day against Durham, as Ollie Hunt unfurled a composed century at LSE, New Malden.
A patient 56 from Josh Blake as well as Yousef Majid’s unbeaten 47 took the Three Feathers to 287/5 from 84 overs before bad light stopped play and 12 overs were lost.
On a cloudy morning, having elected to bat, Blake and Hunt showed good technique and concentration to navigate a testing new ball spell from James Minto and C Harmison.
The openers eventually began to express themselves, with Blake particularly going at a good rate, pulling Will Rhodes all along the carpet to bring up his first fifty of the competition. The Three Feathers comfortably won the morning session, heading into lunch on 99/0.
Through George Drissell, Durham came out fighting in the afternoon session, as the off spinner struck twice in three balls, ending Blake’s promising innings before finding Nikhil Gorantla’s edge.
Building a new partnership with right-hander Nathan Farmer, Hunt paddle swept Drissell for his fifth boundary and reached a well-made fifty. Farmer (15) had added 34 runs for the third wicket with Hunt before he holed out to deep midwicket off Drissell.
Will Tripcony became Drissell’s fourth wicket of the day as the tall right hander feathered a looping delivery to the wicket keeper Bowman, leaving Surrey 163/4 in the 52nd over.
From there on, two left-handers Hunt and Majid steadied Surrey’s innings and added 86 runs together, including Hunt’s cover drive to deep cover off Colin Ackermann for a single to move to his three figures.
Hunt’s impressive knock concluded when he drove Rhodes aerially to mid off and departed for 123 off 216 balls. James Taylor (16*) joined Majid in the middle then, taking the Three Feathers safely to the close of play, as Majid finished the day with two boundaries from what turned out to be the final over.
