Four innings in one day as wickets tumble in Surrey-Yorkshire clash
“IT'S a batsman's game,” you often hear it said. Not at The Oval, it isn’t. Wickets tumbled like rocks in a landslide as this match hurtled along at a breathless pace, like an England cricketer dashing to catch last orders at the bar.
By the end of the second day, everyone was in need of a stiff drink or several. Surrey were 27-0 in their second innings, chasing a target of 185, after 23 wickets fell inside three frantic sessions.
You’ve heard of four seasons in one day? Well, this was four innings in one.
The last time that happened in a County Championship match was in 2018, when Middlesex played Northamptonshire at Lord’s.
The last time it happened at The Oval was in 1950, when Surrey entertained Essex.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter - they all rolled into one in a cricketing sense.
The mayhem began after 45 minutes - the equivalent of an entire half of football played before the first wicket of the day in a deceptively civilised start to proceedings.
Yorkshire had resumed on 133-7 after an opening day in which just 59.5 overs had been possible due to rain and bad light.
Dom Bess and Kuldeep Yadav took their overnight stand from 20 to 57 before Kuldeep edged Auqib Nabi to second slip.
Ben Coad and Jack White soon followed, both falling to seamer Tom Lawes, leaving Bess unbeaten on 44 - a potentially crucial contribution from No 8 as Yorkshire were bowled out for 185.
On a pitch that was by no means a minefield, despite an unholy clatter of wickets that occasionally exposed batsmen’s technique, Yorkshire then got to work with the ball.
As with their Surrey counterparts, they maintained an excellent line and length and found just enough movement, Coad and White establishing the tone.
White struck in successive overs to remove openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley to catches behind the wicket.
Coad squared-up Josh Blake and trapped him lbw as Surrey slipped to 22-3.
Two balls after lunch, with the total 24-3, Will Luxton dropped Ben Foakes low at third slip off White, a difficult chance.
Ollie Pope on-drove George Hill to the foot of the pavilion, a velvety stroke that disturbed a posse of pigeons. “Sorry, chaps…”
Foakes produced something not dissimilar before edging Hill to Bess at first slip.
It began a collapse that saw Surrey lose their last seven wickets for 41 runs in 11.4 overs, their final score of 83 being their lowest against Yorkshire at The Oval for 91 years.
Josh Thomas was lbw to Hill for a 13-ball duck. Pope miscued Matty Revis horribly to mid-off. Lawes threw the bat at the same bowler and was superbly caught high to his right by Bess at third slip. Coad had Nabi caught at mid-off from a leading edge, and then Matthew Fisher taken at first slip. The innings ended when Rahul Chahar pulled White to deep mid-wicket.
Only Pope (21), Fisher (12) and Extras (11) reached double figures as White and Coad took three wickets each, and Hill and Revis two apiece.
Trailing by 102, having posted their lowest Championship score since 2018, Surrey’s only route back into the match was to bowl Yorkshire out for a similarly low score.
They began that mission well.
Fisher had Adam Lyth pushing to cover and, with his next delivery, brought one back to uproot Sam Whiteman’s middle stump as Yorkshire’s No 3 completed a pair.
James Wharton clipped the hat-trick ball to the mid-wicket boundary before Yorkshire took tea at 24-2.
Luxton played some entertaining shots in an innings of 29 from 31 balls but was third out with the score on 36, a leading edge off Lawes to mid-off proving his undoing.
Nabi bowled Wharton between bat and pad, and Yorkshire slid to 51-5 when Fisher got the key wicket of Jonny Bairstow, knocking back his former team-mate’s off stump.
In his next over, Fisher had Revis edging to second slip and then Hill caught at second slip to complete his five-fer.
Having been left out of the squad for next week’s third Test against Pakistan, it was a real statement performance by the 28-year-old Fisher, who won an lbw verdict against Kuldeep to leave Yorkshire 65-8 en route to a career-best return of 6-25.
Bess dug in for the second time with the bat to make a useful 17 before edging behind.
Yorkshire were bowled out for 82 inside 29 overs when Coad drilled Worrall to Blake on the cover boundary, their lowest total at The Oval for 53 years.
Surrey started their chase with 23 overs left in the day, sunshine eventually giving way to cloudier skies.
Sibley clipped a couple of nice boundaries off his pads and Burns played a similar stroke before bad light intervened at twenty-past six, with 15.2 overs left unbowled.
Play was officially called off at ten-to-seven, the hosts needing another 158 for victory on the third day.