Resilient County suffer agonising defeat
Wed 13 May 2015
Leicestershire’s batsmen fought incredibly hard and came so close to denying Surrey an LV=CC victory on a final day at the Kia Oval which had seemed increasingly certain to end in a draw until a dramatic evening session.
The day began with Leicestershire only 45 runs ahead on 310 for five but Niall O’Brien led the way with 78 from 178 balls and there was also a wonderful rearguard action from Ben Raine, Clint McKay, Rob Taylor and Jigar Naik.
At tea, when County were 470 for eight, the stubborn visitors looked to have done enough to keep the bowlers at bay and collect ten points from this hard-fought contest.
Surrey had other ideas and after taking the final two wickets in the space of five deliveries to end a resilient innings that spanned 161.1 overs, they hunted down a target of 216 from 24 overs.
Not only did Surrey get home, they did so with 16 deliveries to spare. The win was set up by Jason Roy and Steven Davies, the NatWest T20 Blast opening pair who treated the run chase like they were facing a white ball on a Friday night.
Davies reached a superb hundred off only 57 balls, finishing with 115 not out from 69 balls with four sixes and eleven fours, and Roy flayed 67 from 39 balls as they shared an astonishing 145 in just 67 balls.
Earlier in the day, O’Brien more than doubled his 38 and although he lost Raine (33 from 79 balls) in the 11th over of the morning, leg-before to Surrey’s key man Zafir Ansari, he immediately found another stubborn partner in McKay.
Raine’s knock had helped O’Brien to add 72 for the sixth wicket and 51 more runs came in alliance with McKay before the Ireland international drove Tom Curran to Rory Burns at short extra cover.
McKay batted almost two hours for 41, and although he was another lbw victim of Ansari’s, it seemed as if Taylor and Naik would guide Leicestershire to safety as they added 62 in 28 overs of defiance.
But Naik, who had batted for 102 minutes for 30, was caught at slip from the off spin of Gareth Batty and then, five balls later, Taylor edged Ansari to keeper Gary Wilson after scoring 42 from 119 balls in two and a half hours.
The damage had been done by Surrey’s spin duo, who bore the brunt of the bowling responsibilities in the absence through injury of fast bowler Chris Tremlett. Ansari took a career-best 6 for 152 from 51.1 overs and Batty claimed 2 for 100 from 46 overs.
The excellent Oval batting pitch, which had so frustrated Surrey for virtually five sessions in the second innings, now gave the visiting bowlers little chance of containing Surrey’s destructive batting line-up – especially with a short boundary on one side of the ground.
It was Kevin Pietersen’s epic first innings 355 not out that had put Surrey into a winning position at the halfway mark but his strokeplay was not needed second time around as Roy and Davies launched themselves at the Leicestershire bowling.
Sixes and fours flew from their flashing blades and Roy and Davies brought up Surrey’s 50 in the fifth over and the 100 in the eighth. At the ten-over mark Surrey were 133 without loss and victory was all but assured when Roy was caught on the cover boundary by Angus Robson off Taylor in the 12th over after hitting four sixes and six fours.
Davies completed his fifty from just 24 balls – four balls less than it had taken Roy – and the left-hander displayed all the flair which has won him 13 limited-overs international appearances for England over the years.
Kumar Sangakkara then came in to hit his first two balls for four and although he was caught by Robson off Naik for 12 it hardly slowed the Surrey chase with Wilson and then Burns helping Davies to propel Surrey to their victory target.
Wilson also became victim of the Robson-Naik alliance but Surrey were nearly home at this point. They claimed a maximum 24-point haul while Leicestershire collected five points, which seemed so little reward for such a huge amount of fight, character and effort.
