Surrey maintain one hundred per cent start to the Blast after victory over Middlesex

Surrey strengthened  their position as group leaders after a twenty run victory over Middlesex at Lords.

Jason Roy got the visitors of to a flying start by smashing 81 in 45 balls as Surrey set Middlesex 209 to win. The home side themselves also got of to a rapid start, but were pegged back mid innings with captain Chris Jordan leading from the front with four wickets and the ever reliable Sunil Narine’s miserly 2-28 saw Surrey to a sixth win of the campaign and maintained their unbeaten record so far.

After a light shower, the game was delayed by ten minutes with Middlesex winning the toss and inserting the visitors from south of the river in to bat.

Jason Roy and Will Jacks opened the innings for Surrey with Roy coming out swinging. His partner Jacks was more circumspect and when he had nine runs on the board he mistimed a slower ball from Jason Behrendorff and was caught at mid-off.

Middlesex were desperate to stop the flow of runs from the bat of Jacks, but got themselves back in the contest when Sam Curran(0) feathered a delivery from Toby Roland-Jones behind into the gloves of John Simpson.

Roy continued to dominate the Middlesex attack and raced to his half century off only 24 balls including two six’s and seven fours. The Surrey opener added to his maximum total by depositing spinner Chris Green into the stands on the short side of the ground.

Middlesex struck again when Martin Andersson took a sharp caught and bowled chance with Evans falling for 22.

Sunil Narine offered useful support with Roy before the west Indian chipped the ball straight to midwicket for a breezy innings of 25 off 16 balls.

The hosts were confident that they had captured the wicket off Jamie Overton after Andersson looked to have taken a stunning one handed catch. The Surrey batter didn’t walk with both on field umpires coming together and deciding the soft signal to be out. After a while the third umpire Richard Kettleborough deemed that his decision was not out with Overton surviving having faced a single ball.

The former Somerset all-rounder profited by moving on to a quick and breezy 27 made off 12 balls before falling to Behrendorff .

With Chris Jordan joining Kieron Pollard in the middle, Surrey added runs quickly towards the close of the innings before Chris Jordan(16) holes out in the deep off the last ball of the innings as Surrey posted a formidable total of 208-7.

Requiring a shade over ten an over the Middlesex opening partnership of Steve Eskinazi and Max Holden set about the business of getting the hosts off to a good start. Eskinazi decided to follow in the steps of Roy by swinging from the off. The skipper raced to 39 off only 17 balls as the pair put on 54 runs off the first four overs.

Jordan decided to turn to Narine- who’s economy rate so far in the Blast is outstanding- after the opening pace attack of Reece Topley, Sam Curran and Dan Worrall proved expensive.

However, it was the captain who made the breakthrough with his first delivery when Holden(33) holed out to square leg.

Shortly afterwards Narine managed to sneak a delivery through the gate of Eskinazi  who went for a fine 47 off 21 balls, to leave Middlesex 83-2 in the eighth over.

Surrey started to turn the screw with the run rate increasing  to a shade of 12 an over, Middlesex had to start taking chances. England’s white ball captain Eoin Morgan(5)  perished at deep midwicket as the hosts reached 93-3 at the half way point.

Narine- who has proved to be a wonderful signing for Surrey- continued his excellent start to the Blast by grabbing the wicket of John Simpson(13).

Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals with skipper Jordan picking up two in three balls with Joe Cracknell(6) and Andersson(0) first ball as the home side went from 82-2 to 111-6.

Chris Green and Luke Hollman offered some brief resistance before Hollman(21) was brilliantly taken at backward point to give Jordan his fourth wicket of the night.

The South African Green remained defiant until the end with an unbeaten knock of 46 that saw Middlesex requiring an improbable 28 off the final six deliveries bowled by Jordan.

The skipper held his nerve with a final over that went for just seven runs as Middlesex fell 20 runs short , with Surrey continuing their impressive start to the competition and Middlesex falling to their fourth straight defeat after a promising start to the campaign.

Middlesex   Surrey

Vitality Blast South Group Thursday 9^th June 2022

 Surrey  208-7 (20)    Middlesex  188-8 (20)

        Surrey won by 20 runs

   Peter Moore at Lords

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