29 Apr 2021
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LV= Insurance County Championship 2021
Surrey
560 for 7
Hampshire
92 all out
171 all out
Hampshire trail Surrey by 297 runs with 1 wicket remaining
Match Report: Surrey v Hampshire, LV= Insurance County Championship
James Vince's side suffer innings defeat against Surrey at The Kia Oval
Day One
Jordan Clark claimed a career-best 6 for 21 as Surrey brushed aside Group 2 leaders Hampshire for 92 at the Kia Oval and then scored 131 for 1 in reply with both Rory Burns and Hashim Amla batting masterfully on a green-tinged pitch.
Burns was on 61 not out and Amla unbeaten on 59 when bad light ended play at 5.09pm, the Test-class pair adding 100 in 30 overs to put Surrey in control of an LV= Insurance County Championship match that began with Hampshire 36 points ahead of their opponents after only three rounds of games.
With 17 fours between them, Burns and Amla even made batting look comfortable against a below-par Hampshire seam attack despite the early loss of Mark Stoneman for 7, thin-edging Kyle Abbott behind.
Clark, consistently finding movement away from the right-handers, earlier wrecked Hampshire’s in-form batting line-up in cold, overcast conditions. Kemar Roach and Rikki Clarke also bowled testingly, each taking two wickets, with keeper Ben Foakes finishing with five catches and Clarke three.
All-rounder Clark’s bustling fast-medium proved too hot for Hampshire to handle after he was brought on for the 15th over, with the visitors having battled hard to reach 37 for 1 after being put in. The 30-year-old struck his first blow in his third over, Sam Northeast slicing to second slip to go for 4.
Three overs earlier Clarke had removed Tom Alsop for 5, thin-edging a beauty to Foakes as he pushed forward, and now Hampshire plunged dramatically from 44 for 2 to 44 for 6 as Clark took three wickets in seven balls and Clarke sent back opener Ian Holland, lbw for 22 in the 20th over. All in all, four batsman fell in 13 balls.
Clark followed up Northeast’s scalp by having James Vince caught behind with the last ball of the same over and then, with the fourth ball of his next over, producing another away-swinger that Liam Dawson edged to second slip.
West Indies fast bowler Roach, who had made Surrey’s initial breakthrough with the new ball when Joe Weatherley nicked to a diving Foakes on 9, returned to have Scott Currie caught behind for 4 and at lunch Hampshire were 70 for 7.
The second ball after the interval, a perfect leg-cutter from Clark, saw Abbott edge to second slip on 4 and only Lewis McManus, hitting a couple of gorgeous driven fours in an unbeaten 31, resisted as Brad Wheal, held at second slip for 5, and Mohammad Abbas, smartly caught low down at first slip by Burns, fell in successive balls to the rampant Clark.
Day Two
Hashim Amla stroked an unbeaten 215 from 367 balls and Ollie Pope hit 131 as Surrey moved remorselessly to 513 for 3 and into an impregnable position against Hampshire at the halfway point of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at the Kia Oval.
Amla and Pope added 257 in 62 overs for the third wicket, a Surrey record against Hampshire at the Oval, on a day of relentless accumulation for the two high-class South Africa and England Test batsmen.
By stumps, Surrey were a massive 421 runs ahead, having shot out Hampshire for a mere 92 on day one, and on course for a first win of the championship season at the fourth attempt.
For the veteran Amla, 38, who began the day on 59, it was his seventh first-class double-hundred and an eye-catching return to form after picking up a pair in Surrey’s defeat against Middlesex at Lord’s last week.
Resuming on 131 for 1, Surrey lost their captain Rory Burns for 80 after 40 minutes’ play, the England Test opener bowled off his pads aiming a pull at left-arm spinner Liam Dawson.
Burns added just 19 runs to his overnight score but had already produced one sublime flick off his pads for four off Kyle Abbott and departed looking distraught at missing out on a really big score after taking his season’s run tally to 256 from six innings, with three scores above 50, at an average of 42.66.
Amla and Pope, however, simply went on and on as Hampshire – who started the match top of group 2 with two wins from their first three fixtures – were made to suffer.
Ian Holland did beat Pope, on 6, with a leg-cutter, and on 64 the talented 23-year-old edged Abbott through the gap between two slips and gully for four soon after the former South Africa fast bowler took the second new ball.
Amla, similarly, only had a few alarms as he cruised to a 53rd first-class hundred – early on being beaten by an Abbott nip-backer and later seeing teenage seamer Scott Currie produce a superb leg-cutter which pitched on middle stump and bounced sharply to beat the outside edge.
He also survived a difficult chance to gully on 184, slashing at Currie, but otherwise Amla and Pope simply caressed a stream of fine shots on both sides of the wicket, finding the gaps seemingly at will. Between them, they collected 37 fours, and after Pope was well-caught at backward point off Currie the 20-year-old Jamie Smith arrived to ease to 66 not out and help Amla add a further 100.
Day Three
Kemar Roach’s superlative career-best 8 for 40 spearheaded Surrey’s completion of a crushing innings and 289-run victory against Hampshire, dismissed for 179 at the Kia Oval to be beaten inside three days.
Roach, the West Indies fast bowler, started Hampshire’s slide with a skilful 11-over new ball spell of 3 for 21 either side of lunch while veteran seamer Rikki Clarke chipped in with 2 for 31 after Surrey had declared their mammoth first innings on 560 for 7, a huge lead of 468.
And Roach then trapped both Liam Dawson for 33 and Scott Currie for 1 with wicked inswingers in a pre-tea burst before returning a third time to send back Kyle Abbott for 21 and Brad Wheal for a duck in his first over back.
His magnificent bowling was then rewarded with the final Hampshire wicket, when Lewis McManus was caught behind fending off a sharply-rising ball into his ribs shortly after reaching a defiant 51.
It was Surrey’s first LV= Insurance County Championship win of the season, after two losses and a draw, and for Hampshire a first defeat – and their heaviest post-War championship loss – after two wins from three matches.
Hampshire, indeed, began this game on top of Group 2 but earned only one bonus point while Surrey’s maximum 24-point triumph hauls them into contention for Division One qualification in what looks like being a fiercely-competitive conference stage.
Clarke, 39, made Surrey’s initial breakthrough, striking with his fifth ball to have Joe Weatherley leg-before for 14 in the eighth over.
And, soon, Hampshire were 44 for 4 as Roach pinned Ian Holland lbw with an inswinger for 18, had Sam Northeast caught at second slip for a duck from an ill-judged drive three balls later and, in his next over, going around the wicket to see left-hander Tom Alsop brilliantly held low down at second slip by Clarke for 6.
Almost immediately after lunch James Vince managed one cover four off Clarke before edging the last ball of the same over to keeper Ben Foakes to depart for 10.
Surrey, resuming on 513 for 3, batted on for 50 minutes although without Hashim Amla – the great South African retiring hurt on his overnight 215 because of a stiff neck after more than eight hours at the crease on days one and two.
