A season rammed with stalemates – enforced by some horrid weather and staid pitches – is getting to the stage where teams would rather like some results. But Surrey and Yorkshire, barring a miracle, will shake hands and declare a draw some time on Thursday afternoon. Simply too much time – only 49.4 overs were possible across the first two days – has been lost.
Surrey need wins more than most. They are rammed full of young talent but are bottom, with one win, and head to their fellow strugglers Hampshire next week. For them it was a curious, quiet day. When the Curran brothers were involved, it seemed something could happen; when they were watching on – as they did for most of Adam Lyth’s and Andrew Gale’s fine stand of 150 – everything felt rather passive. Sitting where Surrey are in the table, they cannot afford too much of that.
Tom Curran, who is yet to have a rest this season, returned late in the day to dismiss Gale, caught behind by Steve Davies – deputising for the unwell Ben Foakes – but Lyth ended the day with an impressive unbeaten century, his third of the season. All the hallmarks of his ascent to the England side were back; that vicious square drive, cuts – both late and violent – and a keen eye for anything short. As Gareth Batty and Zafar Ansari wheeled away unthreateningly, he milked singles with the occasional flourish, such as the handsome six he drove down the ground off the latter.
Earlier the younger Curran, Sam, had provided Surrey’s fizzle and chutzpah. Coming to the crease as Foakes cut his second ball of the day straight to second slip, he was always busy and marshalled Surrey to a respectable, if under-par, 267. The 75 he shared with Davies was attractive and resourceful, full of thrashed cover drives and even a fancy reverse-sweep, but he was left stranded on 59 as Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq spun out the tail.
It was Sam Curran, too, who took the first Yorkshire wicket, failing to notice Alex Lees had lost a bail as he appealed wildly for lbw, while Stuart Meaker bowled Jack Leaning with his first ball to leave Yorkshire 49 for two as Gale joined Lyth. Unfussy as ever, the pair set about their work and, with much of the fizz gone from the game, Lyth’s job on Thursday, no doubt, will be to push on in search of batting points.
It is Middlesex who are top of the table after a second magnificent, nerve-jangling victory in as many weeks, as John Simpson bludgeoned a leg-side six to see them chase down 308 with two wickets in hand and two balls of their 45 overs remaining against Somerset. After Peter Trego’s 138 enabled Somerset to declare nine down for 446, Nick Gubbins and Dawid Malan set the tone for Middlesex’s chase, before tumbling wickets saw a period of consolidation. But Simpson and James Fuller, the hero of the first innings, added 86 in under eight overs, and the wicketkeeper squeezed them over the line, ending 79 not out off 80 deliveries.
Warwickshire are a place behind them, having drawn a rain-wrecked game with Hampshire at Edgbaston. Sam Hain and Tim Ambrose both scored their first centuries of the season as Warwickshire batted out the final day, with a late flourish by Rikki Clarke unable to give them a fifth batting point.
In Division Two, Essex’s Matt Quinn took seven for 61 on the opening day against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham. After an opening stand of 77 Quinn reduced the hosts to 140 for seven before they recovered to close on 218 for eight.
