MATCH PREVIEW: Surrey vs Lancashire
Lancashire are up and running in the Championship, ending a frustrating run of five early season draws with a dominant victory over Hampshire at Southport a couple of weeks ago.
The season started with high hopes of a title challenge, trying to better last season’s second-placed finish and pinch the title from Surrey in the process.
With eight games remaining, that aim will not have changed. But this is a hugely important fixture given Surrey are leading the way and have a 55-point gap to the Red Rose, albeit they have played seven games - one more than their visitors to the Oval.
While Lancashire head into this fixture on the back of a win, so to do Surrey, who beat Kent by five wickets at Canterbury when chasing 501. It was the second highest successful run chase in County Championship history.
The Kookaburra ball will be used for the next two rounds of the Championship following a recommendation from the recent Sir Andrew Strauss High Performance review.
It’s being done partly to give prospective England players a chance to play against a ball used for Test Matches in countries such as Australia and South Africa.
Opponents
Over the last season-and-a-half, Surrey have won 13 of their 21 Championship matches, losing only once - the same number of defeats as Lancashire.
Captain Rory Burns and his team have been relentless, and they are bang on course for back-to-back titles having won five times out of seven this campaign.
Their win against Kent last time out would have been a serious kick in the guts of their fellow title challengers, with them chasing 501 - their record chase - to win a game which they had been behind for three quarters of it. For example, replying to Kent’s first-innings 301, they were bowled out for 145.
But opener Dom Sibley, young tyro Jamie Smith and England Test wicketkeeper Ben Foakes all scored centuries to turn the game around in grand style.
Coached by Gareth Batty with Alec Stewart as their director of cricket, Surrey have New Zealand batter Tom Latham and Australian seamer Sean Abbott as their two overseas players.
Abbott is playing both Championship and Blast cricket for them this season, while Latham has just signed a short-term four-day deal with the county.
Sibley is their leading run-scorer this season with 448, while ex-Lancashire all-rounder Jordan Clark and Australian-born seamer Dan Worrall have 28 wickets apiece.
Opposing player to watch
There has been so much talk recently about Ben Foakes. Should he or shouldn’t he be playing in the Ashes?
He is widely regarded as England’s best wicketkeeper. But that’s not enough for Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum as they go about hitting the Australians out of town.
Jonny Bairstow is currently the man in possession of the wicketkeeping gloves, a player with more dynamism with the bat.
But Foakes is still a high-class player, and he is someone Lancashire must counter if they are going to win this fixture and blow the title race wide open.
Foakes has scored 408 runs in six matches this season, and he is averaging 51 with two centuries. That’s the same number of centuries the 30-year-old has scored in his 20 Test Match career to date.
Previous meeting
Lancashire and Surrey drew the opening game of 2023 at Emirates Old Trafford in early April, the visitors making the early running before the Red Rose dug in admirably in the second innings.
Surrey, inserted, recovered from 77-4 on day one to post 442 early on day two, with Cameron Steel’s middle order 141 not out supported by 76 from Ben Foakes and 54 from Jamie Smith. Tom Bailey finished with 4-86 from 25 overs.
In reply, Australian seamer Sean Abbott claimed five wickets in Lancashire’s 291 all out, captain Keaton Jennings top-scoring with 76 at the top of the order.
Foakes hit a second-innings 103 not out in Surrey’s 292-6 declared, setting Lancashire a 444 target late on day three.
The hosts started day four on 37-0, and birthday boy Josh Bohannon celebrated his 26th birthday in style with a determined 108 to underpin a close of play score off 247-3.
There was a scare when openers Jennings and Luke Wells fell with the score on 65, but Bohannon and Steven Croft, who made 56 not out, shared 173 for the third wicket.
What they said
It is almost five years ago since Josh Bohannon made his first-class debut for Lancashire against Surrey at the Kia Oval, in a day/night Championship game in August 2018.
Aged 21, he scored a determined 52 from number eight in the first innings and 32 from number seven in the second, the hosts going on to win a pink ball thriller by six runs en-route to the title.
It was an encouraging start for Bolton’s Bohannon, and he has since built on that by scoring seven centuries in a further 58 first-class appearances, including a best of 231.
He has scored 3,474 first-class runs at an average of 45.11, and he has also played for the England Lions and moved up Lancashire’s batting order to be a linchpin at three.
“I’d have liked more hundreds if you’d look at it being harsh,” said Bohannon when posed the question about how happy he was with his career development as he prepares to return to the Oval for the first time since his debut.
“But the volume of runs I’ve scored, and the position I’ve done the majority of scoring at number three, it’s not an easy job to do in England.
“The hundreds will come, and I’m a very different player to what I was when I made my first-class debut and even a different player to what I was last year.”
Not only has Bohannon played for the England Lions, he has also been spoken of as a senior Test player of the future.
“Everyone dreams and has aspirations, but I never thought I’d get this far when I started out if I’m honest. It’s nice to be spoken about and considered. As long as I keep going and improving, that dream can still come true.
“But I'm just keen to keep on enjoying my cricket, learning and turn in more match-winning contributions.”
On why he believes he’s a different player now to 2018, Bohannon said: “I think state of mind, behaviours and those sorts of things.
“When I first came in, I was trying to learn my craft. I’m still learning every single day, but the way I practice and train now is very different to what I used to do. It’s more about what I need as opposed to showing the coaches what I can do.”
And on the forthcoming fixture, he added: “We’ve played some seriously good cricket (this season). We’ve got a really good squad - it’s exciting the talent that we’ve got here.
“There’s a real togetherness. Even though the results haven’t been going our way until last week, we’ve stuck together.
“The weather’s played a massive part. But to get over the line like we did against a strong Hampshire side gives us a lot of confidence to go and take on Surrey, who are obviously top of the table.
“We’re not going into this game thinking, ‘They’re top of the table, we’ve got to do this and that’. As long as we play our best cricket, we’ll give ourselves the best chance to beat anyone in the country. Hopefully the result will benefit us on the back of that.”
How’s Stat
Lancashire and Surrey are the only unbeaten sides in Division One of the Championship this season.