Ey, 'twent belly oop

So last night was the first time in a long time Simon Jones got a run out in a county first XI game (the last time was against Hampshire where he nearly got a hattrick - first wicket was Adams, who was clearly just having an off day, then Lamb, which nills any credibility of the hattrick attempt ;) ), and he was a bit undercooked first up. Mind you who wouldn't be after sitting out for two years? All credit to him, after the Davies assault made his figures Ervine-esque (oh, I can't say that now!) he came back well, cleaning up Batty then effecting a run-out off his own bowling. 1-53 is more of a reflection on his first two overs than his last two, though the initial battering was basically the difference between Hampshire and Surrey on the night. Slug continued his fine form with the ball, picking up 3 wickets to take his 20/20 tally to 11, streets ahead of Wood in second with 8 wickets. Probably the worst part was that Cork and Wood both went for lots of runs without getting any wickets. However the good to come out of that is that surely they can not perform as badly as an opening pair again? I guess it was just one of those days for them. Allowing Surrey to get to 200 was a bad showing, but I'm pleased with how positively our batsmen played. Lumb got into double figures, though Slug sadly failed with the bat. Adams piled up some more runs, taking his season total to 278, 142 more than anyone else in the team (McKenzie is on 136). Vince furthered his claim for a permanent spot in the XI by striking at nearly 2 a ball, whilst McKenzie showed he has more than two gears by blasting a 50 that was actually quick enough to be a good effort given the total. Alas it wasn't enough and we finished 11 runs short.

As I said some good can come out of this game, and I'm nowhere near as suicidal as I was after the Somerset match. Ervine must be on drugs or something, how can he bowl so brilliantly?? Adams is still amongst the runs, Vince can become the aggressor at the top that we have been lacking since Lumb lost form. McKenzie earned his salt, Cork and Wood will bowl much better, Dawson can only improve on his batting average of 0.5, whilst Briggs still appears to be a handful with that wide delivery stance that sends the ball from a tree to the batsman. A real disappointment is Nic Pothas, who appears to have lost 'it', though I have my suspicions that Slug and Adams have found 'it' and split it between them. It may be worth our while giving Bates a run in the team - he is the future after all, and with Pothas struggling with various things, age one of them, perhaps it is time to say enough's enough. Oh, and 3 days have now elapsed on Christian's injury time out :D