Recent Match Report – Surrey vs Kent 35th Match 2022

Kent 331 (Bell-Drummond 102, Leaning 75, Lawes 4-51) and 121 for 0 (Denly 63*) path Surrey 673 for 7 dec (Curran 126, Jacks 103*) by 221 runs

Towards the again of what is going to all the time be generally known as the Peter May Stand on the Kia Oval a small encampment has been created. There is a canopied seating space with open sides and also you may name the factor a gazebo if that description didn’t sound incongruous in an city setting of concrete and glass. And one hesitates to dub the place a redoubt earlier than checking the definition and discovering the next: “a temporary or supplementary fortification, typically square or polygonal and without flanking defences”. That sounds higher, not least as a result of these sitting beneath the canvas clearly have one thing to defend. “No City Franchises – Save Our Cricket” declares considered one of their banners. “Peter May Boys” broadcasts one other. I feel we get the image. Let’s assume the Boys did not contribute to Tom Harrison’s leaving reward.

Actually, after all, that’s not altogether appropriate. The season is barely half over and a clutch of sides in each divisions have their eyes on their respective titles. Just as considerably, a 4-day, first-class match is an intense affair through which the gamers make investments appreciable bodily and emotional capital. Winning is necessary and careers rely upon the result of such video games. So Lawes’s pleasure when he bowled Jack Leaning off the within edge for 75 after which had Ollie Robinson caught at tremendous gully by Ryan Patel carried each collective and private significance. It started a sluggish collapse that noticed Kent lose their final seven wickets for 91 runs and be pressured to comply with-on 342 runs behind. For his half, Lawes strolled off this nice subject with figures of 4 for 51 towards his title in what’s his first Championship match.

At the identical time, all English seasons because the introduction of two divisions have provided the prospect of promotion and the jeopardy of relegation. This summer season, suggestions as to subsequent yr’s construction will likely be made by Andrew Strauss’s excessive-efficiency evaluate panel earlier than being polished by a small group of fastidiously chosen county chief-executives and voted on by the county chairmen within the autumn. Only then may the mere gamers discover out what their skilled lives will likely be like in 2023. You should be relatively smug to develop such a plan however no much less deranged accountable England’s Ashes defeat on county cricket within the first place. Perhaps somebody ought to ask the ECB’s howl-at-the-moon crazies whether or not the home recreation can also be accountable for the three-0 victory towards New Zealand.

The distinction between the pair was beguiling and nearly unexpectedly satisfying. Patel bowled the final over and by that point Rory Burns was attempting to unsettle the batters with unorthodox fields, the type some would label “funky”. There was a foolish mid-on and foolish mid-off posted when the ultimate ball of the day was greeted with Denly’s resolute ahead defensive. The gamers left the sector and nearly directly one puzzled what number of alternatives tremendous cricketers of Compton’s ilk may get ought to purple-ball cricket be diminished to a distinct segment exercise, one whose solely objective is the manufacturing of Test gamers relatively than additionally worrying with the upkeep of robust counties and all the advantages they create to golf equipment and communities throughout the land. Members and supporters across the nation are expressing their views and it is no use considering will probably be simple to search out consensus. Me? I’m with Peter May Boys on their redoubt and some county chairmen may also be receiving their name-up papers fairly quickly.