MATCH PREVIEW: Surrey vs Lancashire, Metro Bank One Day Cup
Lancashire are at the point of no return in the One Day Cup as they get set for a rare List A meeting with Surrey, whom they last met back in 2013.
Surrey vs Lancashire
Metro Bank One-Day Cup, Group One
Thursday August 17, 2023, 11am
Guildford Cricket Club
Qualification remains a possibility with three games remaining, but back-to-back defeats has left Keaton Jennings and his men with little room for manoeuvre.
The Red Rose have ended their four home fixtures with defeats against Leicestershire and Hampshire - the top two teams in the group - on Friday and yesterday.
Yesterday’s against Hampshire came as they were bowled out for 223 chasing 235.
Lancashire now sit sixth in the group with four points from five games; one win, two No Results and two defeats. They are two points behind Yorkshire, who hold the third and final qualifying berth for knockout cricket.
Surrey are all but out of contention having lost three of five games, including yesterday against Yorkshire at York when they went down by one wicket defending 242. Yorkshire got home from 210-9.
Opponents:
Surrey are the reigning county champions and are top of Division One of the Championship at present. They also reached the semi-finals of the Vitality Blast.
But they are finding things difficult in the ongoing One-Day Cup.
That’s owing much to the fact they are dealing with an availability crisis.
They are missing 12 players to the Hundred. That is the most of any county. Coach Gareth Batty’s squad has also been further decimated by injury.
At York yesterday, they were only able to field two fit frontline seamers in Conor McKerr and teenager Luke Griffiths.
England fringe wicketkeeper Ben Foakes even twisted his ankle whilst batting in that game and was unable to take the gloves in defence of a 242 target. There has, therefore, got to be a doubt over his availability tomorrow.
Surrey played three spinners at York - Amar Virdi, Dan Moriarty and Cameron Steel.
Rory Burns is their club captain and is available for this competition, as is another top order batter with England Test experience in Dom Sibley. Both will have designs on regaining their Test places.
Added to three defeats so far, Surrey have won one and had a No Result.
Opposing player to watch:
Middle order batter Ben Geddes, aged 22, has been a bright spark in a difficult 50-over campaign for Surrey, hitting two fifties in four innings so far.
Epsom-born, Geddes has come through the Surrey age-groups with decent success in red ball cricket, and he has hit two hundreds in six matches so far.
He has played 16 times in one-day cricket and captained the Oval outfit throughout last year’s competition, showing how highly he is rated in South London.
He mixed determination with attack in scoring a List A best 92 against Yorkshire yesterday, recovering his side from 0-2 to 241 all out and was particularly strong on the short ball, though it was a tactic the hosts used regularly on a two-paced pitch.
Previous meeting:
Lancashire and Surrey haven’t played a List A fixture in a little more than 10 years. Ironically, the last time they played in this format, it was at Guildford in the Yorkshire Bank 40 competition in June 2013.
The Red Rose, then under the Lightning moniker, won it by five wickets chasing 265 against a Surrey side who finished on 264-8 and included Australian legend Ricky Ponting in their side.
Kyle Hogg and Jordan Clark, the latter now a Surrey player, took two wickets apiece for Lancashire before Ashwell Prince top-scored for the visitors with 76 off 73 balls.
Simon Katich also scored a quick-fire 57 not out off 37 to complete the chase with 15 balls remaining.
Neither side qualified for the knockouts that year.
What they said:
Lancashire 50-over coach Graham Onions believes the county need to win their three remaining games in order to have any chance of qualifying for the knockout stages.
The Red Rose have lost back-to-back games to undermine their chances of a top-three finish.
They head to Guildford to face Surrey as the first of three group stage-ending away games, with Middlesex at Lord’s on Sunday and Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on Tuesday.
“I think you’re probably right,” said Onions when asked if three wins were needed. “And I think we’ve got a good enough team to do that.
“We’ve got a good team. The most important part of my role as a new head coach and a lot of the players around that - whether you’re Dane Vilas or Tom Aspinwall - is to learn.
“We can all do things slightly differently.
“We’re on the road now, and it’s an exciting time. We’ve got a chance for the lads to play against a good (Surrey) team.
“If we win all three, we’ve got a sniff, we’ve got a chance. Sometimes you play your best when you’ve got to win every single game.”
How’s Stat!
As just mentioned, Lancashire and Surrey have not met in a List A fixture since June 2013. But you have to go back to July 2000 for the last List A meeting between the two counties played across 50-overs per side.
That was a NatWest Trophy quarter-final, which Lancashire won by eight wickets chasing 211. Andrew Flintoff scored an unbeaten 135 that day.
Between that game and this, the two counties have played nine times in 40 or 45-over cricket. Lancashire won five of those.