Report & Reaction: Surrey v Hampshire, Vitality CC

Day Four

It took champions Surrey only 30.2 overs on the final day to wrap up victory by an innings and 11 runs against Hampshire at The Kia Oval.

Dan Worrall finished with an impressive five for 47 as Hampshire, dismissed first time around for 151 on day one, were bowled out again for 197. And there was a new Surrey record for the most catches in a first-class match by Ollie Pope, who pouched three more at second slip to give himself six in the innings and eight in the game.

Hampshire, resuming their second innings still 92 runs behind at 116 for five, had added just Ben Brown’s single to their overnight score when Liam Dawson fell for 18 – edging Worrall to Pope in the cordon in the third over of the morning.

It was Pope’s fourth catch of the innings in the position, and sixth of the match, and the England batter then equalled the Surrey record for the most catches in a first-class match when Worrall returned for his second spell of the session and Pope accepted a straightforward nick to second slip as Kyle Abbott departed for eight to the fast bowler’s second ball back.

Pope’s eighth and final catch of the match wrapped up the contest and gave Worrall his fifth wicket of the innings, Brad Wheal (9) obligingly edging for Pope to complete a spectacular tumbling take to his right.

It was a catch that took Pope past the near 67-year old previous Surrey match record of seven catches set by Micky Stewart against Northamptonshire at Northampton in June 1957. Stewart took all his seven in one single innings, which remains a Surrey record.

James Fuller had earlier hung around 23 balls for his four, before fending a Gus Atkinson lifter to gully where Dan Lawrence took the catch at the second attempt to leave Hampshire 139 for seven.

Atkinson then greeted Abbott with a vicious first ball lifter that the tailender did well to fend away from in front of his face, with both feet off the ground, and Abbott continued to bat bravely as he helped Brown to add 26 for the eighth wicket.

But Worrall’s return did for him and leg-spinner Cameron Steel, brought on for his first bowl of the match for the 71^st over of Hampshire’s second innings, had Brown well-held on the deep mid wicket ropes by Ryan Patel one ball after being slog-swept for six in his third over.

Brown’s 45 was a creditable effort but it was also a mark of Surrey’s dominance, and bowling power, that Steel – the early season’s leading championship wicket-taker with 20 from the first three rounds – had not been needed until the game was all but over.

Surrey, who also beat Kent at Canterbury last week, took 22 points to Hampshire’s three and have begun the campaign strongly in their bid for three successive championship titles.

They would have comfortably reached a fourth innings target in their opening home fixture, against Somerset a fortnight ago, but simply ran out of time in a frantic last session run chase following the loss of 70 minutes to rain at the start of the final day, while the weather washed out much of their season opener against Lancashire at Old Trafford.

For Hampshire, meanwhile, today’s loss was also their fourth heavy April defeat in successive years against Surrey at the Oval, following their nine-wicket reverse last April and innings beatings in each of their previous two early-season visits.

Day Three

Hampshire lived to fight another day against champions Surrey at the Kia Oval, but are still facing heavy defeat after losing three top-order wickets in the 32 overs eventually bowled in south London following overnight and early morning rain.

Resuming 177 runs behind at 31 for two in their second innings, Hampshire slid further to 116 for five on the shortened third day of their Vitality County Championship fixture – still a deficit of 92.

James Vince and Tom Prest were dismissed within four balls of each other after resisting for 20 overs in a gritty 46-run stand following the early loss of Nick Gubbins, caught in the cordon off Dan Worrall.

Prest, dropped head-high by Ollie Pope at second slip off Gus Atkinson on 22, had added only a single when he fell for 23 – this time caught in front of his face by Pope as he pushed hard at a ball from Atkinson that shaped away from its original line just outside off stump.

And then former England Test batsman Vince, who reached 26 after resuming on four not out, was beaten by an in-swinger from Kemar Roach and departed leg-before to leave Hampshire’s second innings in real trouble at 87 for five.

Surrey’s reaction to his dismissal underlined just how important they felt getting the Hampshire captain out was after Vince had punctuated some assiduous defence with a number of quality strokes, including an early clipped four off his pads off Jordan Clark and a lovely back foot force to the square cover boundary off Atkinson.

Vince had also showed grit following some on-field attention from the Hampshire physio after being struck a glancing blow on the shoulder by a vicious Atkinson lifter when on 21.

Ironically, given the early gloom of the day, most of the single session had been played in bright sunshine but the Oval floodlights were on by the time Liam Dawson, on 18 not out, and Ben Brown, unbeaten on seven, saw out the final overs with Surrey’s seamers still very much on top.

Play had finally begun at 4.30pm after heavy overnight rain had ruled out any prospect of cricket before lunch and then further light showers in early afternoon had delayed further mopping up operations.

But it took Worrall only ten balls to add to his overnight scalp of Ali Orr, with Gubbins edging one angled across him to second slip, where Pope fell to his right to scoop up a fine low catch.

Gubbins, out for 10, had added only four runs and Prest was beaten first up by a brute of a delivery from Worrall, which lifted and left him, when he came in on a king pair.

To his credit, though, Prest knuckled down and was soon into double figures with driven fours off Clark and Worrall as he and Vince did their best, for over an hour, to defy Surrey’s four-pronged pace attack.

Day Two

Hundreds in contrasting styles by skipper Rory Burns and Jordan Clark put champions Surrey in control against Hampshire at the Kia Oval.

Burns’ seven-hour 113 – his 25th first-class century but first since July 2022 – laid strong foundations and Clark built on them with a run-a-ball unbeaten 106 as Surrey took a first-innings lead of 208 when they were bowled out for 359 on the stroke of tea.

Hampshire lost openers Ali Orr and Fletcha Middleton in successive overs before bad light and rain took 20 overs off the day’s allocation. Hampshire will resume on 31 for two, trailing by 177.

Burns had seen four teammates depart at the other end to leave Surrey 44 for 4 replying to Hampshire’s 151, but adding 75 with Ryan Patel yesterday, he made sure they didn’t squander their advantage on day two.

The pitch had lost a bit of zip but Hampshire’s seam attack – and in particular the outstanding Muhammad Abbas – still asked plenty of questions with their probing lengths and judicious use of the short ball.

Burns found an unlikely ally in nightwatcher Kemar Roach with whom he patiently put on 66 in the morning session. They had to negotiate testing opening spells from Kyle Abbott and Abbas, and Burns would have been run out had Orr, running in from cover, hit the stumps with Burns, who was on 55, stranded well short of his ground.

Brad Wheal broke the stand when Roach (19) drove expansively at his outswinger, but Cam Steel helped Burns take the lead past 150, upper-cutting Abbott for six over backward point to get off the mark before Abbott had him caught behind in the third over after lunch.

Abbas – who finished with 1 for 43 from 28 overs - looked ruefully to the heavens when Clark was dropped at slip on 16 and how the all-rounder made Hampshire pay, by helping Burns put on 98 in 19 overs.

Burns did a superb job blunting Abbas and Abbott in particular and was ruthless with anything loose. He tucked his 236th ball into the leg side for the single which took him to his first hundred at the Kia Oval in two years, and by then Clark had begun to plunder the attack.

He struck nine fours in a 53-ball fifty and then greeted Liam Dawson’s belated arrival by launching the left-arm spinner’s third ball over mid-wicket for six.

Burns’ 424-minute marathon finally ended on 113 (256 balls, 8 fours) when he tried to up the tempo with a reverse-sweep off Dawson. He departed to a standing ovation and in the next over Abbott uprooted Gus Atkinson’s middle stump, but Worrall hung around long enough for Clark to complete his fourth first-class hundred and third for Surrey, off 101 balls with 12 fours and a six.

Roach and Worrall then emphasised Surrey’s control by each taking a wicket with the new ball. Worrall’s yorker-length was too good for Orr and Middleton was caught at second slip nibbling at one from Roach that did just enough off the seam.

Day One

A dramatic opening day at The Kia Oval, dominated by swing and seam, ended with Surrey reaching 123 for five after they had earlier dismissed Hampshire for 151.

Ryan Patel, coming in to join Burns with Surrey stuttering at 44 for four, unfurled some regal strokes in his 41 from 94 balls while opener Burns dropped anchor in nuggety fashion against the moving ball to reach an unbeaten 39 in almost three and a half hours’ batting. Together they put on 75 in 25 overs before Patel was bowled by one from Muhammad Abbas that kept wickedly low.

Hampshire, who finished third last season, have been one of Surrey’s closest challengers as they have won successive titles in the past two years, but they have still struggled on this ground in recent times.

They fought back strongly with the ball despite their first innings demise against the Surrey quicks, with Dan Worrall, Jordan Clark and Gus Atkinson finishing with three for 44, three for 29 and three for 40 respectively.

Kyle Abbott plucked Dom Sibley’s off stump out of the ground in the second over of Surrey’s reply, the former England Test opener going for four, and James Fuller then forced Ollie Pope to play on for 13 as he attempted to withdraw his bat from an outswinger.

Jamie Smith, keeping wicket in this game with Ben Foakes rested on England management orders, was bowled on the stroke of tea for 13 by another beauty, this time from Brad Wheal, and Abbott returned after the interval to have Dan Lawrence leg-before for two with a ball that shaped back into his pads.

At the start of the day, Surrey’s first wicket took only eight balls to arrive, Fletcha Middleton edging Worrall to second slip immediately after nicking the bowler’s first delivery of the match through the cordon for four, and for a while Ali Orr took the fight back to the champions with some lovely strokes against the new ball.

On 26, however, Orr flicked Clark’s third ball to square leg, before Worrall dismissed James Vince and Tom Prest with successive balls in the last over of a superb seven-over opening spell of three for 21.

Liam Dawson calmly punched Worrall’s hat-trick ball through mid on for two but on three he edged to first slip off Atkinson.

Clark then surprised Ben Brown with some extra bounce, as he continued an eventual eight-over spell from the Pavilion End, and the Hampshire keeper’s attempted pull merely resulted in a spliced easy return catch.

Nick Gubbins was then joined either side of lunch by Fuller in a defiant partnership of 61 in 17 overs.

On 91 for six at the interval, Hampshire were happy to see Gubbins and Fuller steady the ship until the former was bowled for 45 by a fine inswinger from Kemar Roach, operating from around the wicket to the left-hander.

Then, eight runs later, Fuller was gone too for a punchy 39 from 55 balls when he uppercut Atkinson to deep cover where Roach ran in ten yards to take an excellent sprawling catch.

And, when Wheal edged Atkinson behind on 12 and Abbott mishit Clark to Roach at long on, Hampshire had been bowled out in 44.4 overs.