Surrey Second XI are locked in a tight match with their Durham counterparts after two batting friendly days in Guildford.
In the morning session Josh Blake was denied the chance of making a patient and well crafted century, the keeper-batter left stranded on the unlucky-for-some score of 87* – 13 shy of the a first ton of the season. Number 11 David O’Sullivan hung around gamely to make 46 runs of his own and face out 80 balls before he poked at a delivery outside the off stump from left-arm spinner Hooper to be easily caught behind by Mackintosh.
Durham’s top order made the most of a decent batting deck once they got their own innings underway. Despite Kimber bowling McKinney cheaply for 9 runs off 28 balls and O’Sullivan nicking off Clark, well caught by Cameron Steel at second slip, Durham capitalized on the relatively benign surface. Crawshaw and Bushnell bedded in for the rest of the day and kept the scoreboard ticking over despite some tight bowling from Surrey’s bowlers. The home side were unable to make any further breakthroughs – Crawshaw ending the day on 127* and Bushnell 63 off 129.
Coach Jim Troughton commended his team at the close of play for sticking to their task on an attritional day of toil. He expressed a desire for Surrey to keep Durham in sight on first innings and for the home side to bat big and long in their second innings. With two days left the game is in the balance. It’s all to play for.
Updates on the match will provided on Surrey CCC social media channels, a live score will be available to follow on the NV Play platform and full reports of each day’s play will be posted on kiaoval.com every evening.
