Published: 15th April, 2018
Surrey came out on top of a drawn match with Cambridge MCCU in their final pre-season match of the 2018 season.
After Scott Borthwick’s hundred and a good team bowling performance had helped Surrey start the third day with a lead of 300, young pair Ryan Patel (38*) and Ollie Pope (68*) batted solidly all morning.
Over the second evening and the third morning, the two 20-year-olds put on an unbroken 104 together – Pope utilising his natural aggressive instincts to move through the gears as the morning went on, hitting a pair of big sixes before captain Rory Burns called an end to the innings with Surrey on 119/1.
The 100 is up for Surrey and it’s 50 for Ollie Pope.
Surrey now 101/1, with Pope 57* including this gorgeous straight six pic.twitter.com/wYgfr7Pemn
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) April 15, 2018
Needing to take ten wickets to secure the victory, Surrey couldn’t have asked for a better start as Jade Dernbach dismissed Akil Greenidge with the second ball of the innings, caught low by Rikki Clarke in the slips.
A lovely low catch from @RikkiClarke81 as @Jwd_16 catches Greenidge’s edge.
The @MCCU_Cambridge opener departed for a golden 🦆 pic.twitter.com/Jil53wkRid
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) April 15, 2018
Dernbach struck again with his last ball before lunch, Harrison Palmer feathering through to Ollie Pope behind the stumps as the students went into the break on 28/2.
With six bowlers used in the afternoon, Surrey continued to stick to their lines well. Dernbach took a third when Ben Seabrook chopped on before Mat Pillans had Jack Keeping caught slogging into the leg side, Rikki Clarke angled one in that Drew Brierley unwisely left alone and Matt Dunn got the Cambridge captain, Callum Guest, caught by Clarke at slip, this time high above his head.
.@RikkiClarke81 bowling good lines from the Pavilion End this afternoon.
This probably wasn’t one for leaving… pic.twitter.com/5eoPsJR2sU
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) April 15, 2018
More excellent slip catching from @RikkiClarke81 as he helps @MatthewDunn05 secure his first wicket of the day, Surrey’s sixth. pic.twitter.com/BxbC2RWBFW
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) April 15, 2018
Cambridge were 106/6 at tea before, with the Surrey players out in the middle ready to start the final session, the umpires decided that the light on a gloomy afternoon in Kennington had sufficiently decreased to take the players off.
Twenty minutes later, with a further drop in the luminosity out in the middle, the captains agreed to shake hands to bring an end to a valuable pre-season work out.
Surrey will start their competitive summer with the visit of Hampshire in Specsavers County Championship on Friday (April 20th). The action gets underway at 11am.
