Another sublime century from Ryan Patel and an unbeaten 103-run stand from Luke Griffiths and Matt Dunn for the ninth wicket were the highlights from the batting-dominated final day as this well-contested game between Surrey and Middlesex in the Second XI Championship was drawn.
Having batted brilliantly in the latter half of the evening session yesterday, Surrey’s openers continued taking positive strides forward on the fourth morning as captain Ben Geddes reached a well-made half-century.
Immediately after, however, the fantastic 129-run opening stand was broken as Geddes edged MK Andersson and was caught behind for 50 off 94 balls.
The loss of his opening partner as well as wickets of Stuart Van der Merwe (19) and Krish Patel (12) didn’t deter Patel as the first-innings centurion sailed on to bring up another classy hundred, striking nine fours and three sixes more on his twin-ton journey.
With Surrey on 228/4, ahead by 197 runs, and Patel on 110, Middlesex found the crucial breakthrough – Andersson providing the goods again as Patel was edged behind to wicketkeeper J Davies.
From there on, in the afternoon session, the visitors gained much-desired momentum and fought back in an attempt to limit Surrey to a remotely chaseable target. Within the next 27 runs, Middlesex claimed four more quick-fire wickets, removing Nick Kimber (20), Tommy Ealham (6), Oliver Pascall (8), and Yousef Majid (0) cheaply and reducing Surrey to 255/8.
But Surrey, as they had done throughout the match, once again rode out the wave of Middlesex’s momentum and calmed down the waters as debutant Griffiths and Dunn dug in to take the hosts to 358/8 declared.
The pair batted beautifully and defiantly to add 103 unbeaten runs for the ninth wicket, meaning the Three Feathers attained an unassailable lead of 327 runs, and the result was that both the captains shook hands and the match was drawn.
Griffiths and Dunn finished the game on unbeaten 65 and 40 respectively.
A report from day one can be found here, day two here, and day three here.
