Impressive centuries from Josh Blake and Stuart van der Merwe meant that Surrey enjoyed a productive batting day in their Second XI Championship fixture against Yorkshire at Guildford CC, closing on 348/8 after 96 overs.
Recreating their brilliance from last week, where the two left-handers added 137 runs for the fourth wicket against Somerset and went on to score centuries, today they shared an incredible alliance of 229 runs, with Blake finishing on 142 and van der Merwe on 111.
Having won the toss and elected to bat, skipper Ben Geddes walked out with Arjun Gill to begin Surrey’s innings. Seamer DJ Leach broke the hosts’ steady start when he got Geddes lbw for 15.
Gill and in-form Blake built firmly and took the Three Feathers to 80/1 before JA Gunn struck Gill’s front pad – just before lunch – to dismiss him lbw for a well-made 30.
Early in the afternoon session, with Surrey two short of 100, overseas signing Sai Sudharsan became the third batter to fall as he was adjudged lbw off the bowling of BM Mike for six.
His dismissal brought Blake and van der Merwe together and thus began the mammoth double-century stand, during which both the batters played some thoroughly exquisite shots on their way to their respective centuries.
By the time their partnership was broken by Leech, who got van der Merwe caught behind with a well-directed short ball, 54.4 overs had passed and Surrey had raced from 98/3 to 327/4.
Shortly after the fall of his partner, Yorkshire were able to remove Blake as he holed out to WA Luxton in the deep off the bowling of ME Milnes, which also opened the window for the visitors to fight their way back into the game.
In the dying stages of the evening session, the White Rose eked out the wickets of Dan Moriarty (1), Tommy Ealham (5), and Matt Dunn (1) to leave Ollie Sykes unbeaten on six and Surrey on 348/8 by the close.
Seamers Milnes (2/44) and Leech (2/78), as well as off-spinner JW Shutt (2/66), were the most profitable bowlers for Yorkshire.
A live scorecard is here.
