Surrey stun Derbyshire to a seven-wicket win
Surrey came back strongly to win a match of the County Championship Division Two against Derbyshire, at the County Ground, Derby in England. The hosts set a target of 142 runs, which was easily achieved by the Surrey batsmen, losing just three wickets in
their innings on Wednesday, June 1, 2011.
Toss was won by the visitors’ captain, Rory Hamilton-Brown, who decided to field first.
However, the decision didn’t prove to be an ideal one, as Derbyshire posted 400 runs in their first innings.
Chesney Hughes was in superb form, scoring a century for Derbyshire. He batted well under pressure, as the hosts lost a couple of early wickets. Hughes ended up being the top scorer for his team with 124 runs off 210 balls. He played well along with the
team’s middle-order players, who also did a decent job in constructing solid partnerships.
Dan Redfern used all his experience and scored 55 runs for Derbyshire. The team was all-out for 400 runs, courtesy some excellent bowling by the Surrey bowler, Tim Linley, who took six wickets.
The second day being washed out by rain really hurt the chances of a result in the match, but the visitors came out aggressively in their first innings.
Surrey’s wicketkeeper batsman, Steve Davies, paced his inning nicely and ended up with 78 runs for his team. He got very good support from Hamilton-Brown, Zander de Bruyn and Tom Maynard, who all scored half-centuries.
However, the lower-order of the visitors collapsed and they fell 42 runs short of the first innings total set by Derbyshire.
The home team’s bowlers gave away plenty of runs, but Steffan Jones took three wickets, leading the comeback for his side. He also got some support from Jonathan Clare, who picked up a couple of wickets in the innings.
It seemed as the match was headed towards a draw, but the Derbyshire batsmen failed to capitalise on the first innings lead and were all-out for 99 in their second outing. None of the batsmen managed to stay longer at the crease and wickets kept on falling
at regular intervals.
The highest score in the Derbyshire second innings was 17, which came off the bat of middle-order batsman, Wes Durston.
Surrey’s new ball bowlers, Matt Dunn and Linley, were in menacing form, taking five and four wickets in the innings respectively.
The visitors didn’t find any difficulties while chasing the target, as they reached 142 runs, losing just three batsmen.
Opener, Jason Roy, gave a solid start to the team, scoring 45 runs. Apart from him, former England player, Mark Ramprakash also played a cameo of 21 runs not-out, guiding Surrey to victory.
Greg Smith managed to pick up a couple of wickets for the home team, but his effort went in vain.