Day 4
Centuries from both Emilio Gay and Alex Lees, in a superb unbroken opening partnership of 262, made sure of a comfortable Rothesay County Championship draw for Durham against Surrey on day four at the Kia Oval.
Gay hit an unbeaten 156 while Lees followed up his first innings 125 with 100 not out – reaching his second hundred of the match with what proved to be the last ball before hands were shaken at 5pm – and Durham’s successful rearguard action over the last seven sessions of the match owed much to the skill and stamina of their captain.
Lees and Gay’s stand was a new Durham partnership record against Surrey for any wicket, beating 183 by Will Smith and Scott Borthwick at Chester-le-Street in 2013.
Durham began the day by initially turning their overnight 343 for nine into a final first innings total of 362, with an injured Ben Raine defying Surrey’s bowlers for a further 7.1 overs.
They were helped by early morning rain that prevented any play until 12 noon, while Surrey knew that the loss of 16 overs from the day’s allocation also took from them the possibility of having a second new ball available in a final hour.
As it was, after Raine’s brave 19 and more resistance too from his tailend partner Daniel Hogg, Durham were left with 70 overs to negotiate in their second innings when predictably asked to follow on – Surrey having amassed a mammoth 820 for nine declared in their own first innings on a flat pitch.
Surrey’s consolation is that the additional eight draw points, giving them 15 in all from the game, are enough to push them to the top of the Division One table for the first time this season – a single point in front of long-time championship leaders Nottinghamshire.
Seamer Raine, who suffered ligament damage in his left ankle on the opening day, had hobbled out at No 11 to survive seven balls at the end of day three. When day four got under way it seemed as if Raine was moving a little more freely and his further defiance included three fours in a 32-ball effort ended when Will Jacks trapped him lbw.
Lees sliced the first ball of Durham’s second innings just wide of gully for four and the bowler, Dan Worrall, was frustrated again when, on 5, the former England Test opener was beaten by a beauty that Surrey’s slip cordon initially thought might have taken a thin edge.
Gay’s first scoring shot was also a streaky edge for four through the slips, off Matt Fisher, but soon the two left-handers had settled in and Rory Burns, Surrey’s captain, used six different bowlers in the first 14 overs of the innings – either side of lunch – in a vain effort to conjure up an early breakthrough.
Surrey all-rounder Sam Curran even aired some rarely-seen left-arm spin as the match meandered through its final overs after the tea interval, and the eight-over spell was tidy enough even if by then both Gay and Lees were content merely to see out time.
It was Gay’s third hundred in Durham colours, since his move from Northamptonshire, and after reaching three figures from 98 balls he faced 172 in all, hitting 25 fours. Lees batted for 162 balls, striking 14 fours.
Day 3
A brilliant three-wicket burst with the second new ball by Dan Worrall resurrected Surrey’s victory ambitions just when it looked as if Alex Lees and Ollie Robinson’s 152-run stand had raised Durham hopes of being able to force a draw at the Kia Oval.
Lees scored a superb 125 and Robinson a 105-ball 79 as Durham eventually reached 343 for nine by stumps on day three, but earlier both fell to paceman Worrall, as did New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, in a slide from 266 for three to 284 for seven.
When Matt Fisher removed George Drissell with the last ball before tea, Durham had lost four wickets for 29 runs in 12 overs immediately before the interval.
Afterwards, though, Graham Clark and Matthew Potts added 46 for the eighth wicket in 25 overs to hold up Surrey again as the Kookaburra ball lost its shine and hardness.
Potts resisted 79 balls for his 23, until Dan Lawrence spun an off break to pin him leg-before on the back foot, and then Worrall returned to hit Clark’s middle stump with his fifth ball back to end a defiant 30.
A hobbling Ben Raine, injured when bowling on day one, bravely emerged at No 11 to keep Daniel Hogg company until the end of play, with Hogg even taking two fours off Fisher in the closing overs.
Overall, however, bat has overwhelmingly dominated ball on an essentially flat pitch in a Rothesay County Championship match on which the draw still seems the likeliest outcome despite Durham, in reply to Surrey’s mammoth 820 for nine declared, still being 477 runs adrift going into the final day.
Opener Lees showed immense stamina, as well as notable skill and determination, to frustrate Surrey’s attack for almost six hours in all. The Durham captain began day three on 33, with his side 59 for one, and forged a fine partnership with Robinson after seeing both Will Rhodes and Colin Ackermann depart before lunch.
Rhodes edged the impressive Fisher to keeper Josh Blake to go for 26 in the morning’s eighth over, and Ackermann’s 24 was ended by an excellent piece of bowling from Sam Curran. Angling one across the right-hander, left-armer Curran saw Will Jacks cling on to a sharp catch at first slip.
Robinson was fortunate to nick Curran between first and second slips for four, a technical but low chance, before he had reached double figures and, after lunch, Curran had an impassioned appeal for lbw against Lees, on 64, turned down – much to the all-rounder’s dismay.
Otherwise, however, the fourth wicket pair progressed serenely and successive fours off Fisher took Lees to 80 while Robinson went to a 76-ball half-century in style by pulling Jordan Clark powerfully off the front foot for six over mid wicket.
The 32-year-old Lees, went to his 31st first-class hundred in the 74th over of Durham’s innings and – having been on the field in sweltering 90-degree temperatures for almost eight sessions – he was forced to leave it at 3.41pm on day three.
Robinson had just been bowled by a full inswinger from Worrall, and the leader of Surrey’s attack made it three strikes overall in his second, third and fourth overs with the second new ball – taken with Durham on 255 for three – when he quickly added the scalps of Lees and Neesham.
Lees, who faced 240 balls and hit 18 fours, nibbled fatally at a fine ball that lifted and left him and Neesham’s thicker edge to a similar delivery flew to Jacks at first slip.
Clark survived a big lbw appeal from Fisher on four and then a mishit pull at Worrall on five dropped inches short of Curran, diving forward from the squarer of two mid wickets, but Drissell (7) top-edged a pull at Fisher to mid on as Durham’s sudden decline continued apace.
Durham’s innings was steadied, however, by Clark and Potts who made sure of a second batting bonus point while also denying Surrey a third bowling point. As batting conditions eased at the end of another long, hot day, it was noticeable that Worrall and Fisher were given only another five overs between them just before the close.
Day 2
Dom Sibley’s 305, plus quickfire hundreds from both Dan Lawrence and Will Jacks, propelled Surrey to 820 for nine declared at the Kia Oval.
Resuming on 407 for three, they broke their 126-year-old county record after batting on until just after tea on day two.
And in 28 overs’ bowling before the close, Surrey then held Durham to 59 for one in reply with some testing bowling and will look to put the visitors under further pressure on days three and four of this Rothesay County Championship Division One fixture.
Matt Fisher struck at the start of his second over with the new ball to bowl Emilio Gay behind his legs for seven.
Sibley, on 169 overnight, eventually added 334 in 53 overs with Lawrence, a fourth wicket record for Surrey against Durham.
Lawrence cruised from 58 at the start of the day to 178 – as with Sibley, his first-class career best – before slicing Daniel Hogg to point.
Lawrence struck four sixes and 19 fours in an eye-catching 149-ball effort, while Jacks was just as effortlessly brutal in his own 119 from 94 balls – also hitting four sixes. Sibley and Jacks put on a further 133 in 21 overs for the fifth wicket.
The declaration came when Jacks skied Hogg to deep mid off looking to hit a third successive six, after Surrey had opted to bat on after tea for what proved to be another 12 balls and 17 runs.
But the first post-tea Jacks blow off Hogg, swung high and far over a short mid-wicket boundary, took Surrey past their previous highest total in first-class matches – the 811 scored against Somerset at the Oval in May 1899.
Sibley’s 475-ball epic, featuring two sixes and 29 fours but for the main part a relentless display of risk-free accumulation, was the eighth first-class individual score of 300 or more by a Surrey batsman, and the seventh highest.
Surrey’s total, meanwhile, was the highest first-class total made against Durham, beating the 810 for four declared reached by Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1994.
Clark, who contributed 24 in 16 balls, Josh Blake and Lawes all departed cheaply while Jacks continued to pile on the agony for a Durham attack missing Ben Raine.
Durham closed on 59/1 at the close.
Day 1
Dominic Sibley and Sam Curran scored excellent centuries as champions Surrey made solid work with the bat on day one at the Kia Oval.
Sibley’s batted all day for his unbeaten 169, his third century of the campaign, while Curran’s 108 from 117 balls was his first Championship ton of the season. The duo added 170 for the third wicket as the hosts piled up 407-3.
Prior to their mammoth stand Rory Burns lit up the morning’s play with a half century full of trademark shots and laced with 12 fours and Dan Lawrence (58*) too passed 50 at better than a run a ball before stumps were drawn.
Durham were without the services of Ben Raine from early afternoon and there was a nasty moment for England quick Matthew Potts, who collided with the advertising boards in stopping a boundary shortly before lunch. He didn’t appear at the start of the afternoon session but returned to bowl later, seemingly without issue.
Shorn of the services of Brydon Carse, Mark Wood and Codi Yusuf, Durham nevertheless followed the accepted practice of bowling first at the Oval even with the Kookaburra ball in play.
Burns soon caused them to question the wisdom of that decision, producing his full repertoire of strokes. Durham aided this process, guilty of bowling either short and wide to feed the cut shot or drifting onto the pads whereupon the former England opener would drive them through mid-on and mid-wicket.
There was the odd cover-drive too, all of which meant Burns was not required to exert himself with too much running on a hot day. His 12th four raised his 50, at which point he’s scored only three aside from his boundaries.
A loose stroke brought his downfall shortly before lunch and when Ryan Patel went cheaply soon after the resumption there seemed a tiny window of opportunity for the visitors. However, Raine (1-32) left the field in the wake of taking the wicket and Curran and Sibley soon slammed that window shut again.
Curran bristled aggression from the start, taking a particular liking to the spin of George Drissell, clouting his first ball, over the bowler’s head and later muscling him over the ropes for six.
Against seam he was ruthless given any width, his first 50 coming in only 48 balls. Only a tight spell from Will Rhodes dragged him back below a run a ball, but his sparkling hundred containing a six and 14 fours was completed soon after tea before Drissell gained a measure of recompense by having him caught in the deep.
Sibley, who edged short of wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson on four in the second over of the day, was content to play second fiddle, though he did unfurl three boundaries in one Jimmy Neesham over, the former New Zealand Test bowler pressed into service with a red ball for the first time in three years.
A lovely pull shot was among eight fours in his first fifty and while there were only two more on route to 100, reached in 238 balls, he was a man transformed thereafter.
Two short-pitched balls were expertly guided to the fence at third, while a punch through mid-wicket, his 19th four in all took him past 150.
A ramp shot and a drive on the up came out in the death throes of the day as he dominated a stand of 131 with Dan Lawrence, who in turn scored his 1000th run for Surrey as the 400 was raised shortly before the close.