Floodlit Cricket

The big question of the day was would the rain wreck the floodlit cricket at the Oval. It was raining at 4.30pm in Essex but it was worth a gamble, and for the second time this week I made my way to see the "Surrey Lions" I must admit that I was very critical of the new Surrey shirts for the T20 series, fluoro green has nothing to do with Surrey, and in truth I was disappointed to see the chocolate brown disappear. However under lights the luminous green looked very effective.

After the purchase of a pastie, a pint and a new England cricket cap, I settled down to watch the Lions take on my county of residence, the Essex Eagles. Unlike Tuesday, Surrey elected to field and tremlett and Nel soon had Essex in trouble, the crowd of 11,000 witnessed Essex struggle to 88 for 7 off 17 overs however the last three overs carried the visitors to 121.

The target looked achieveable as Hamilton-Brown and davies made their way to the wicket and although the openers didn't last long, with Ramps at the crease the scoreboard kept moving effortlessly. However one over changed the game,Bopara captured Symonds and Khan in consequtive balls, and when Ramps was run out, sliupping as he turned shortly after the game hung in the balance.

Matt Spriegel hung around and took singles and twos but Surrey had no one who could hit the needed boundaries and Essex achieved what seemed for so long an unlikely victory. At the end of the game an unsavory incident between some members in the pavilion and Essex batsman Ravi Bopara. Regardless Surrey now have played two,lost two, and the players signed up for the competition have brought little to the team at the moment.

Hopefully things will improve before the next home game next Friday, against the Kent Spitfires.