Marcus Hook picks out his highlights from Surrey CCC’s 2022 season

BY MARCUS HOOK

So, the curtain has come down on another summer of county cricket. Surrey turn in some stellar performances in the 2022 County Championship, very nearly going unbeaten.

The South Londoners were also impressive in the Vitality Blast, winning nine out of nine until international calls began to bite.

Here are my highlights of the season.

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

STANDOUT PERFORMANCE
Beating Hampshire by an innings and 17 runs was an early statement of Surrey’s intent. Hampshire arrived at the Oval in week two having just dismantled Somerset. Despite being brought back down to earth by the South Londoners, the title race was a story of them and the Oval outfit pushing each other all the way.

BEST KNOCK
Will Jacks’ unbeaten 150 against Essex at the Oval. Jacks hit eight sixes en route to a personal best as he transformed an
88-4 start into 319. The next highest score in Surrey’s first dig was Kemar Roach’s 29. Roach and Dan Worrall (who returned match aggregate figures of 11-122) then did the business with the ball to set-up a routine 161-run victory chase.

BEST SPELL
Kemar Roach’s six-over burst of 4-20 before lunch on the final day against Warwickshire at the Oval, to help reduce the visitors from 280-4 to 310 all out. Going into day four, Warwickshire appeared to be holding all the aces with a lead of 207 and their fifth-wicket pair, Hain and Rhodes, going well. The icing on the cake was the booming inswinger Roach produced to pluck out Nathan McAndrew’s off-stump.

BEST MOMENT
Sealing victory over Yorkshire at Scarborough, in July, with just three balls to spare, after the hosts had racked up 521. Surrey were dominant at home – winning six out seven – so it not only kept the pressure on Hampshire, but also demonstrated the South Londoners could still turn it on away from SE11, and without the likes of Jordan Clark and Kemar Roach.

BEST PLAYER
At the heart of Surrey’s championship success were not one, not two, but three in-form all-rounders – Jordan Clark, Will Jacks and Jamie Overton. It might look like sitting on the fence, but it really would be unfair to single out just one.

TWENTY 20

STANDOUT PERFORMANCE
Surrey beat the eventual champions Hampshire home and away in the Blast’s group phase, underlining even more that their T20 campaign (which ended with defeat to Yorkshire by a solitary run in the quarter-finals) could be summed up in two words – what if? The margin of victory when the Surrey entertained Hampshire at the Oval was a thumping 72 runs – Will Jacks, Sam Curran and Sunil Narine hitting rapid half-centuries before Curran junior led the way with the ball, taking a career best 5-30.

BEST KNOCK
Jason Roy’s 81 in 45 deliveries, including three sixes, against Middlesex at Lord’s, which set-up the first of two London derby successes in the Vitality Blast. Unfortunately Roy then went off the boil, both for England in white-ball cricket and in The Hundred for Oval Invincibles. Six months ago, it was unthinkable that he wouldn’t feature in the T20 World Cup, which gets underway on 16 October.

BEST SPELL
Sam Curran’s 4-14 when Gloucestershire were skittled out for just 92 in game two. He had barely bowled a ball in anger prior to the Blast. Following a back injury, his initial outings in the County Championship saw him used essentially as a batter. Curran’s maiden first-class hundred, against Kent, which he brought up with a six, was yet another red-ball highlight for Surrey in 2022.

BEST MOMENT
Conor McKerr hitting the last delivery for four to see off Somerset at The Oval. Surrey needed nine runs off the final over, but with Peter Siddle taking three wickets in the place of four balls, McKerr took guard with no option but to somehow find the boundary without the luxury of playing himself in. Banking on another full-pitched delivery, McKerr squeezed it through the in-field to the cover fence to spark wild celebrations in SE11.

BEST PLAYER
Will Jacks, who delivered consistently with the bat, scored 449 runs in the Blast at an average of 32.07; and at a strike rate of 142.08 runs per 100 balls.

50-OVER CUP

STANDOUT PERFORMANCE
It would be easy to gloss over the Royal London campaign, in which six Surrey players made their List A debuts owing to a combination of The Hundred (which ran in parallel with the 50-over competition) and Test calls ridding the Oval outfit of 15 squad members. But a nine-wicket victory away to Durham in game two raised hopes that they might just defy the odds again, having reached the semi-finals with a group of second-stringers in 2021. Alas, there was no fairytale this time, due, in part, to their decision to forego any overseas representation.

BEST KNOCK
Nick Kimber’s 84 off 51 balls, including six sixes, against Warwickshire at the Oval. At one stage the hosts had no right to even get close to their opponents’ 293.

BEST SPELL
Conor McKerr’s 3-38 at Radlett, the timing of which was unfortunate given that Middlesex (or more to the point, Stevie Eskinazi, who made 182) put Surrey to the sword, piling up 351-7 in
50-overs after winning the toss on a track that favours the side batting first.

BEST MOMENT
Managing to tie the game with Warwickshire even though, in the final analysis, you could argue that Surrey should have got over the line. When Nick Kimber (84) took guard, the South Londoners were five wickets down needing another 165 from 19.3 overs. Matt Dunn followed Kimber’s lead by clubbing 34 off 19 balls. The final over started with scores level and the hosts’ last pair at the crease. Dunn swished at Liam Norwell’s yorker, but missed.

BEST PLAYER
Tom Lawes. The 19-year-old ended his first season as a professional atop of Surrey’s championship bowling averages, but in the Royal London he gave notice that he can also offer with the bat going forward. Lawes hit 318 runs at an average of 53 in the List A competition, including four half-centuries.

LOOKING AHEAD

Given that Hashim Amla, 39, is unlikely to return as overseas batsman, Dominic Sibley has been tempted back to the Oval after six seasons with Warwickshire. Quite where the former England opener will fit in remains to be seen, as Burns and Patel are in possession of the slots at the top of the order in red-ball cricket.

But one thing is for certain – if Surrey are to repeat this year’s championship success, as well as attack the Vitality Blast with a line-up that again matches anything The Hundred is capable of serving up, it will come down to another squad effort.