Match Preview - Surrey 7/8/21

Leicestershire Foxes host Surrey in their final home group stage fixture of the 2021 Royal London Cup campaign tomorrow, with the Oval-based team making the trip to Leicestershire.

County head into the fixture on the back of a no result against Glamorgan two days prior, as the Running Foxes faced just one over of the reduced 43 in response to the visitors’ 277.

Surrey also head into the clash on the back of a no result, after rain decimated the circuit on Thursday, August 5. Surrey faced eight of their reduced 25 overs and posted 66 without loss with Stoneman (29no, 24b) and Geddes (31no, 25b) looking in good form as they responded to Somerset’s 220.

Leicestershire currently sit bottom of Group B in this year’s competition, but a win could see them leapfrog a number of teams with only Leicestershire and Surrey in List A action.

Last Time We Met

The Running Foxes last faced Surrey in a List A match almost 10 years ago, when we hosted our opponents on the Sunday, August 21, 2011, at the Uptonsteel County Ground in a 40-over match.

Winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Surrey posted 292-6 from their 40 overs with Jason Roy starring with the bat - the England international hit 131 from just 99 balls with 11 fours and four sixes. 

In response, Josh Cobb got Leicestershire off to a flier with 51 from just 32 balls (seven fours, two sixes) before he was bowled by Jade Dernbach. From 75 without loss, we collapsed to 151 all out in 25.5 overs, with that man Dernbach wreaking havoc taking 4 for seven from 4.5 overs. Chris Schofield (4-26) also impressed for our opponents.

As would be anticipated, there are no Leicestershire players in the current squad who played in that match a decade ago.

More recently, in the LV= County Championship this season, Leicestershire have met Surrey twice and recorded two draws in rather batter-friendly conditions, so the current squads look pretty evenly matched based on that evidence.

Head to Head

Rishi Patel v Jamie Smith

With overseas star Marcus Harris (232 runs in four matches) having now returned to Australia, Rishi Patel is now the current leading run scorer for the Running Foxes with 218 runs so far in the competition at an average of 54.50, and at an impressive strike rate of 99.09. 

With a century (118) and a fifty already in the competition, people are quickly realising Patel’s high potential and the former-Essex man will no doubt be keen to continue his progress in this breakthrough season.

Another young batter who has very high potential is Surrey’s wicket-keeper/batsman, Jamie Smith, who has already scored a century against Leicestershire in the LV= County Championship this season. The 21-year-old also captained Surrey for the first time in their rain-affected no-result against Somerset on Thursday, August 5, and has shown already this season on a number of occasions that he has potential in white-ball cricket as well as red-ball - Smith smashed 54 from 19 balls in a rain-reduced 30-over match against Nottinghamshire several weeks ago, and hit a number of strong scores in the vitality Blast at a decent strike rate, so the Leicestershire bowlers will need to focus on dismissing the dangerous Smith early in his innings.

Leicestershire Foxes Squad

Head Coach Paul Nixon makes two additions to the Running Foxes, with Roman Walker back after missing the game with his parent county, and Ben Mike included after completing his ban.

Leicestershire Foxes from 15: Rehan Ahmed, Ed Barnes, Will Davis, Sam Evans, Gavin Griffiths, Lewis Hill (C), Louis Kimber, Arron Lilley, Ben Mike, Rishi Patel, George Rhodes, Abi Sakande, Scott Steel, Harry Swindells (wk), Roman Walker.

Match Sponsor

Thanks to Durant Cricket for sponsoring our Royal London Cup fixture against Surrey.