A full round-up of everything that happened between Surrey and Somerset at The Kia Oval in the Royal London Cup on Thursday.
WHAT HAPPENED
Lewis Goldsworthy’s impressive 96 and Dan Moriarty’s controlled 4 for 30, both List A bests, were the stand-out performances of a rain-ruined Royal London Cup match at the Kia Oval in which Surrey were left an agonising two overs short of gaining victory against Somerset on Duckworth Lewis Stern calculations.
Surrey, to their huge frustration, were cruising at 66 for no wicket from just eight overs when rain intervened for the final time, in reply to Somerset’s 220 all out in 48.3 overs. With a minimum of ten overs needing to be bowled at the team batting second, both sides ended up with a point apiece from the no result.
Initially chasing 217 from 48 overs, due to the first of several afternoon rain squalls, Surrey were 7 without loss from 2.3 overs when more heavy rain arrived.
After a delay of 100 minutes, play resumed with Surrey’s DLS target now 147 from 25 overs and, immediately, openers Mark Stoneman and Ben Geddes set about Somerset’s attack to plunder 59 from 5.3 overs.
Stoneman, unbeaten on 29, smashed Josh Davey through extra cover and straight drove Sonny Baker powerfully for another four, while Geddes also hit out attractively with five boundaries to reach 31 not out before more rain forced the abandonment.
Goldsworthy, the highly-promising 20-year-old Cornishman in his debut season, had earlier almost single-handedly dragged Somerset past 200 with a superbly-paced 105-ball innings that featured three late sixes and also six fours.
It was, however, an ultimately disappointing day for a near 5,000 crowd and unbeaten Somerset now have three wins and two no results from their first five group 1 games, while Surrey have two wins and two no results from their initial five Royal London fixtures.
Matt Dunn struck two new ball blows after Somerset had chosen to bat, the Surrey paceman producing excellent deliveries to have Sam Young caught behind for a duck, driving, in the third over and James Rew pouched at second slip for 6 four overs later.
Steven Davies swung Rikki Clarke for six and also struck seven exquisitely-timed fours in a 32-ball 45 before steering Nick Kimber’s pacy seamers to backward point, and James Hildreth unfurled one beautiful extra cover driven four off Kimber before Clarke had him caught behind for 19 with the first ball after a drinks break.
Goldsworthy, who had narrowly avoided being yorked by Kimber first ball, could only watch as Moriarty had Eddie Byrom lbw for 2, prodding half-forward, and then sent back Davey for 5, edging to keeper Jamie Smith an attempted reverse-sweep.
That was 114 for 6, in the 24th over, but at least Kasey Aldridge and then George Drissell hung around long enough to help Goldsworthy put on 27 and 25, respectively, for the seventh and eighth wickets.
Both made 12 but Aldridge edged a rising ball from Kimber to slip and Drissell was smartly stumped by Smith from a legside ball from Moriarty that would have been called as a one-day wide had he not overbalanced.
Marchant de Lange was then bowled by Moriarty for 4, aiming a legside swipe when he might have better concentrated on supporting Goldsworthy, and it took a sensible 7 not out from last man Baker to enable Somerset’s rising young batting star to press down the accelerator in the closing overs.
Goldsworthy first swung Clarke high over long on before adding two more sixes, both off Dunn in a 47th over costing 22, again clearing the ropes over mid wicket and long on besides collecting two fours with a thick-edged slash to third man and a punch through extra cover.
There was one final four, a flat-batted pull off Kimber wide of mid on, before Goldsworthy was caught above his head on the wide mid wicket ropes by Tim David as he clubbed Ryan Patel’s medium pace to leg in a bid to reach three figures.
POST MATCH REACTION
“Having played for Surrey since the age of nine it was a huge honour for me to be able to captain the team today.”
A day Jamie Smith won’t forget in a hurry!
@backandacross pic.twitter.com/yOWxSO6EUe
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) August 5, 2021
Surrey’s acting captain Jamie Smith, 21, said: “Having played for Surrey since the age of nine it was obviously a huge honour for me to be able to captain the team today. Hashim Amla’s injury gave me the opportunity and it was a dream come true. It is also definitely something I have wanted to do, and want to do again in the future.
“Today was extremely frustrating, and to be only two overs away from a win [when the rain caused the abandonment] is really hard to take. But we played very well as a team in the game, and I thought the bowlers were superb again – as they have been throughout this tournament so far. Both Mark Stoneman and Ben Geddes then batted brilliantly, and it was just a shame the rain had the final say.”
TEAM LINEUPS
Surrey XI: Amla, Stoneman, Patel, Smith, Clarke, Reifer, David, Kimber, McKerr, Dunn, Moriarty
Somerset XI:
UP NEXT
Next up, we travel to Leicestershire on Saturday. Our next home game sees us welcome Warwickshire to The Kia Oval on 10th August. Members can attend this fixture for free by showing their card on the gate. Non Members can purchase a ticket here.
