Surrey vs Lancashire
Lancashire 274 Surrey 360
293 57-5
LV=County Championship Division One Tuesday 27th June 2023
Peter Moore at the Kia Oval
Tom Bailey produced a devastating spell of bowling to take four wickets in 16 balls in an 11 over opening spell of 4 for 34 to reduce Surrey to 57-5 in an extraordinary final hour to put Lancashire well on top and inflict Surrey’s first defeat in the championship this season.
Lancashire resumed on their overnight total of 113-4, with a small lead of only 27 runs. Will Williams clipped Sam Curran’s second delivery of the morning through midwicket for a boundary and put the first runs of the morning on the board.
It took Surrey forty five minutes to make the initial breakthrough when Daryl Mitchell(30) was brilliantly caught by Rory Burns at mid-off. The Surrey captain took a sensational catch after diving backwards and somehow clinging on to the ball one handed.
The visitors top scorer in the first innings Phil Salt with 56 survived an early scare when he was put down at backward point with just a single to his name.
With Williams digging in for his side, shortly before lunch the New Zealander bought up his first ever half century in first class cricket to take Lancashire at lunch to 203 for 5, an overall lead of 117 runs.
In the afternoon session, Salt brought up his second half century of the match which came off 101 balls and along with Williams started to see off the second new ball before Jordan Clark got the first breakthrough of the afternoon session and ended a partnership of 95 when Salt(54) was bowled around his legs.
The hosts continued to work their way through the lower order with George Alderson(10) snapped up at slip and Williams stubborn innings ended when he was caught at short leg for 61.
Directly after tea, Curran struck in his first over by removing Tom Bailey(25) before Lancashire were bowled out for 293 to leave Surrey 208 to win.
Bailey ripped the heart out of Surrey’s top order by dismissing Dom Sibley(1) and Tom Latham next ball. Jamie Smith(4) survived the hat trick ball but was soon dismissed by Bailey as Surrey slumped to 15 for 3.
Ben Foakes(5) edged behind to give Bailey his fourth victim before Burns(20) fell shortly before the close to leave Surrey in a perilous position on 57 for 5, still requiring a further 151 to win on the final day.