Marcus Hook’s Surrey column: England’s Sam Curran and Will Jacks miss out as Surrey just do enough to overcome Kent

BY MARCUS HOOK

Not even the Wimbledon weather could halt Surrey’s push for a home quarter-final in the T20 Blast. The South Group leaders made up for last Friday’s London derby, against Middlesex, being washed-out by beating Kent as well as the rain two days later.

No side in the country has a net run-rate superior to Surrey’s and although they just did enough to overcome Kent, by five runs on Duckworth-Lewis, not only were the Oval outfit without an overseas player for the first time this season, England’s Sam Curran and Will Jacks were also missing.

Word has it the England and Wales Cricket Board is seeking to protect its flagship competition, the Hundred, which gets underway on 23 July, by limiting how much cricket the centrally contracted players are exposed to.

Not unlike a seaside town going into hibernation for the winter, the summer-time equivalent, the County Championship, now takes a backseat for seven weeks.

But when Surrey play host to Lancashire at the Oval on 22 August the nearest challenger seeking to prevent the South Londoners making it three four-day titles in a row will be Somerset, who pulled

off a thrilling run-chase against Warwickshire at Taunton last week to move within 23 points of the Oval outfit.

Even though Surrey shoved Essex down to third, I wouldn’t write Essex off just yet, especially if, next up, they return to winning ways against fourth-placed Hampshire.

It’s a similar story in the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy, which also takes a break for the Hundred with South East Stars looking almost certain to be in the semi-final draw.

A feature of the Stars this season is that when they win, they absolutely boss their opponents.

Sophia Dunkley, Tash Farrant, Bryony Smith, Paige Scholfield and Aylish Cranstone have all made over 200 runs in the 50-over competition. But seamer Ryana MacDonald-Gay has been truly outstanding with 16 wickets at an average of 10.93.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” said MacDonald-Gay, after taking 4-34 in last weekend’s 82-run victory over Thunder. “Last time we played here against them it didn’t go our way, so I’m really pleased with the way we played today.

“Not all my wickets are the prettiest, but I will definitely take them and the last two were the best because it meant we got to come off early!

“I think we have a great group. We gel well together and we can rely on each other to do our skills.

“Hopefully we can carry this momentum into the remaining games.”

If Surrey do make it a hat-trick of County Championship titles, I’m reliably informed it won’t be the first time a team has won the championship three times in three years with different Prime Ministers residing in Downing Street.

Exactly a century ago, Yorkshire won under Lloyd George in 1922, Stanley Baldwin in 1923 and Ramsay MacDonald in 1924.

UPCOMING FIXTURES

12 July – Somerset v Surrey at Taunton (T20 Blast)

14 July – Essex v Surrey at Chelmsford (T20 Blast)

14 July – South East Stars v Sunrisers at Beckenham (Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy)

18 July – Surrey v Hampshire at the Kia Oval (T20 Blast)

SOMERSET V SURREY – PROBABLE LINE-UPS

Surrey: Jacks, Sibley, Evans, S.Curran, Patel, Burns (wk), Clark, Steel, Jordan (capt), Worrall and Topley.

Leading run maker: Jamie Smith (285 T20 runs at an average of 40.71)

Leading wicket taker: Sean Abbott (15 T20 scalps at an average of 15.86)

Somerset:vBanton (wk), Smeed, Kohler-Cadmore, Abell, Dickson, Gregory (capt), Green, C.Overton, van der Merwe, Ball and Meredith.

Leading run maker:  Tom Banton (308 T20 runs at 44.00)

Leading wicket taker:  Ben Green (15 T20 wickets at 18.00 runs apiece)

MEMORABLE MATCH

2021 – Three years ago, Surrey opened their Blast campaign with a trio of victories before international calls ultimately scuppered the South Londoners’ hopes of making up for the disappointment of losing the final in 2020. Game two saw the Oval outfit travel to Taunton, where they had been defeated in their previous four. The spin of Gareth Batty and Dan Moriarty proved instrumental in keeping Somerset to 187-6. In reply, Surrey’s batters took full advantage of the short boundary, not to mention the absence of Craig Overton, who was away on England Test duty. Jason Roy set the tone with a 14-ball 30 before Sam Curran (72 not out from 36 deliveries) and Laurie Evans (65 off 34) hit quick-fire half-centuries. Curran thumped six sixes and five fours to see the visitors home with four overs and seven wickets to spare.