Surrey CCC Match Preview - 15/4/21
Wed 14 Apr 2021
Leicestershire CCC get their 2021 LV= County Championship away campaign up and running with a trip to the Oval to take on Surrey CCC.
The Running Foxes head into the fixture on the back of a first-round defeat at the hands of Hampshire CCC who ran out emphatic winners by an innings and 105 runs at the Uptonsteel County Ground.
The hosts, similarly, come into the fixture on the back of a first-round defeat at the hands of Gloucestershire CCC and will be looking to bounce back in their first home fixture of the season.
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Overview
This week’s match against Surrey is the first of three scheduled meetings with the Oval-based team, with another County Championship match due to take place at the Uptonsteel County Ground on May 6, before a Royal London Cup clash on August 7.
The two teams have not met since 2015, where Surrey won both meetings in the County Championship, firstly at the Oval by seven wickets, and then at Grace Road by 178 runs en-route to topping the Division Two table that season.
The only current Running Foxes player who featured across those two matches was Lewis Hill, who hit 126 opening the batting at the Oval in that first match.
Both teams suffered defeats in their opening match in Group Two, with Surrey losing in Bristol to Gloucestershire by eight wickets. Their hosts chased down 229 in just 37.1 overs in their second innings to take 22 points in the encounter, with Surrey managing four points.
Second innings centurion and England wicket-keeper Ben Foakes and England opener Rory Burns impressed with the bat for Surrey, with fellow England player Reece Topley (5-66) doing damage to Gloucestershire in their first innings.
England players is a theme running through the Surrey team, with those three plus Ollie Pope and Mark Stoneman having also played Test cricket for the national team. Spin option Amar Virdi was also in the England squad for their winter tour schedule.
The Running Foxes
The Running Foxes will be keen to bounce back from their opening round loss to Hampshire. After his controversial stumping in the second innings, Hassan Azad will have extra motivation to rack up runs this week and he leads our averages in matches played from 2018 onwards, scoring 1,378 runs at an average of 43.06.
Harry Swindells was a real positive for us against Hampshire, with our wicketkeeper scoring a career-best 59 in the first innings followed by 34 in the second. He is showing real promise with the bat, having now scored 281 runs for just seven dismissals – at an average of 40.14 - across last year’s Bob Willis Trophy and the opening week of this season.
From 2018 onwards, Chris Wright is our leading red-ball wicket-taker with 54 wickets, and despite our difficulties with the ball in Hampshire’s first innings he had our best figures in the match, taking the early wickets of Ian Holland and Sam Northeast.
Surrey CCC - ones to watch
Ollie Pope has been a prolific run-scorer in recent years in the County Championship, amassing 1,569 runs at an average of 68.22 from 2018 onwards. However, the Surrey batsman struggled in the England winter tour of the subcontinent, and he will be looking to recapture his form at County level.
Likewise, left-handed opener Rory Burns has scored plentiful runs for Surrey in red ball cricket, recording 2,195 runs at an average of 53.54 in the same time period. He played several matches for England in their winter tour of India, but was dropped after scoring 58 runs across four innings.
With the ball, 22-year-old Amar Virdi is a spinner of high potential for our opposition and will be a threat even early on in the season. He’s averaging 28.22 in his short career so far and has taken four five-wicket hauls in opposition innings, with career-best figures of 8-61.
Leicestershire Squad
Paul Nixon has named the same 13-man squad as for the Hampshire CCC fixture last week to take down to the Oval.
Will Davis misses out once again after still feeling the effects of an injury picked up against Loughborough UCCE.
Leicestershire from 13: Colin Ackermann (C), Callum Parkinson (VC), Hassan Azad, Harry Dearden, Alex Evans, Sam Evans, Gavin Griffiths, Lewis Hill, Dieter Klein, Ben Mike, Rishi Patel, Harry Swindells (wk), Chris Wright.
