Injuries pile up but Ben keeps his focus
BEN Foakes will play more memorable innings than his fivehour vigil at the Oval on Tuesday, but few will be more valuable to his side.
Eschewing his usual attacking style in favour of an old-fashioned dig in, he displayed huge powers of concentration throughout his contribution of 59, scored at less than half his usual strike rate.
If he seemed embarrassed at learning he had only managed one boundary off the 235 balls he faced, he need not have been. His innings gave Surrey an outside chance of avoiding the follow-on after a calamitous top-order collapse on the second afternoon. They ultimately fell just four runs short of their target, but with rain wiping out the whole of day four, the time taken out of the game by Foakes was vital.
Encouragingly for a side increasingly beset by injuries, it was a sign of the fight among the Surrey players as they re-adjust to life in the Championship top flight.
Foakes’ innings was witnessed by a crowd swelled by 5,000 local school children. The youngsters may have been hoping for a taste of white-ball style fireworks. Instead the lesson of the day was that cricket sometimes means having to scrap your way back into a game. It may have lacked the excitement of a Friday night t20, but the situation demanded grit, not glamour.
With Surrey six wickets down overnight and still 261 runs behind, Foakes and Gareth Batty set about occupying the crease in a stand of 62 in 34 overs on the third day, the skipper unfurling six fours to at least give the youngsters something to wave their boundary cards at.
But they were rare moments, punctuating an otherwise attritional day.
“It was very hard work out there,” said Foakes. “Middlesex bowled very well. It was just about hanging in, trying to stay in the game and trying to bat as long as possible.
“More than anything it was quite tough mentally, just trying to stay in that bubble, basically blocking the ball. It was the sort of situation where you needed to do that.”
Acknowledging the atmosphere created by the school children, Foakes said: “For two or three hours there was constant noise out there. That’s a nice change for a Championship game, so it was good fun. Lots of blocks were getting clapped.”
After the game was called off as a draw, Batty was able to take some positives from the way his young side had fought back at times. Middlesex raced to 126-0 by lunch on the first morning, but were pegged back to 298-7. Tom Curran and James Burke stepped up to the plate admirably after West Indian paceman Ravi Rampaul, who had looked the pick of the bowlers, left the field with a hamstring injury.
Rampaul joins a growing list of injured Surrey bowlers with Zafar
Ansari, Mark Footitt, Jade Dernbach, Matthew Dunn and Stuart Meaker already ruled out going into this game.
Batty also singled out Arun Harinath and Rory Burns for praise. After Surrey followed on the pair calmed any nerves on the third evening, posting 98 without loss by stumps – just two runs short of what would have been Surrey’s first 100 opening stand since last June.
It set up what could have been an interesting final day, before weather had the final say. But that should not mask how Middlesex dominated at times during this match.
Foakes said: “We knew Division One was going to be tough. There is obviously a jump in level and it’s just trying to adjust to that and be as tough as the opposition we come up against, because they’re quite ruthless.”
Batty said: “We showed a lot of guts. There were some good things and some things we need to work on, but certainly enough there that we need to move forward in the right direction.”