Cricket: Surrey left with plenty to ponder as Yorkshire take them on at their own game – bat first and bat big

Surrey are still very much in the hunt for the championship title, but it’s fair to say their trip to Scarborough this week gave them much to ponder.

I’m a believer in waiting until both sides have batted before drawing any firm conclusions as a four-day game unfolds.

By the end of day one at North Marine Road, however, it was clear from Surrey’s body language that the recovery engineered by Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth (183) and Jonny Tattersall (180 not out) had got under their skin.

The pair added 305 in 77 excruciating overs (a new record sixth-wicket stand for the white rose), batting the visitors out of the contest.

Like Surrey’s T20 campaign, it was all going so well at one point – perhaps too well – when the hosts sunk, initially, to 125-5.

But all credit to Yorkshire for not only piling up 521, but also taking Surrey on at their own game – bat first and bat big.

The turning point was the run out appeal Tattersall survived on 29, when the score was on 215-5. Even though the pictures on the live stream suggested Tattersall should have gone, the umpire was unsighted. As Boris Johnson remarked in his resignation speech last week, them’s the breaks.

Nothing saps energy from a bowling attack more than making them think that, no matter what they try, there’s little prospect of a wicket. Lyth didn’t give the Surrey bowlers a sniff until he eventually holed out to deep square leg after 474 minutes of crease occupation.

Given the Oval outfit have now fielded 21 players in nine championship games – due, in part, to injuries and England calls – one is beginning to wonder when, or indeed if, Dan Moriarty will be handed the chance to forge a left-arm, right-arm spin alliance with Will Jacks.

Jacks has come on in leaps and bounds as an off-spinner this season, but, at the end of the day, his bowling is a work in progress.

For any spinner, the absence of a spin twin risks the game unravelling if the seamers are struggling to do their job.

Crucially, Surrey were missing Jordan Clark, their leading wicket-taker in this season’s County Championship – still out with the side strain he picked up in the T20 group clash with Somerset three-and-a-half weeks ago.

Jamie Overton soldiered on despite a sore ankle and Conor McKerr, while posing the Yorkshire batsmen questions, also leaked runs.

Jacks picked up a couple of wickets and, indeed, extracted turn, but there was a definite sense that more pressure could have been applied if the visitors had armed themselves with another spin option.

When Surrey were in their pomp, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they went into every game with their ‘SAS’ – Saqlain and Salisbury – regardless of conditions. Also, let’s not forget that when they won the title in 2018, Amar Virdi was ever-present.

Virdi is currently on loan at Somerset, surplus to Surrey’s requirements now that Jacks is first choice “offie”.

But it was also worrying that, at times, one wondered whether Surrey were aware 19-year-old seamer Tom Lawes was even playing.

Perhaps some superb fielding on Lawes’ part, sweeping on the square boundary on the second morning, was what eventually caught his captain’s attention.

When he did return for a final spell, 64 overs after his second, he picked up three wickets for 13.

England calls, of course, coupled with the lack of an overseas fast bowler were the other reasons why Dan Worrall – easily the pick of Surrey’s attack at Scarborough – could have done with someone capable of matching his consistency.

Still, it’s great to see Surrey’s Reece Topley back as a fixture in England’s white-ball set-up.

The 28-year-old left-armer picked up the man of the match award in the T20 at Trent Bridge, which England won courtesy of his superb 3-22 in four overs.

I gather from Reece’s dad, Don, who played for Essex back in the day, that his son recently suffered the misfortune of losing his entire England kit bag, including his custom-made bowling boots, on the trip back from Amsterdam, following the ODI series with the Netherlands.

To add insult to injury his was the only bag that failed to reach the carousel at Heathrow.

Alas, Surrey won’t be at tomorrow’s T20 finals day, but, despite the calibre of the four teams to have made it through, all will be looking to make up for the disappointment of recent visits.

Hampshire have lost their last five semi-finals, Lancashire have lost their last two T20 semis, Somerset (runners-up in 2021), have lost two of their last three semi-finals and Yorkshire – the only one of the four protagonists yet to lift the trophy – have only reached two previous T20 finals days.