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Surrey flop before big Oval crowd continues nightmarish season
- Updated: May 26, 2016
Glamorgan 96 for 2 (Rudolph 34*, Lloyd 31) beat Surrey 93 (Van der Gugten 4-14) by eight wickets Scorecard
Surrey are the gold standard for English professional cricket as far as Twenty20 is concerned: crowds that fill the Kia Oval are the norm, they are the richest county in the country, the embodiment of off-field success. But the story on the field is not so pretty. They will point to two Finals Days in three years but last night, as they crashed to defeat in their first NatWest Blast home match of the 2016 season, they were abysmal.
Championship cricket has dominated the past six weeks and this match pitted Surrey, bottom of Division One, against Glamorgan, similarly bereft in Division Two – six matches each and not a victory between them. The Blast was an opportunity for release and it was Glamorgan, unfashionable Glamorgan, who gained it by dismissing Surrey for 93 before they waltzed to a predictable eight-wicket victory with 7.4 overs to spare.
The Oval crowd took its punishment quietly. Perhaps we will know that T20 cricket in England matters when they boo on nights like this. Glamorgan, meanwhile, have travelled to south London in T20 four times and won every one, including a county record 240 for 3 a year ago.
Gareth Batty, Surrey’s captain, told Sky Sports: “We have not covered ourselves in glory. In T20, a bad day can be really bad. So scratch it off and move forward. I don’t think it is a time for getting too carried away.”
Fortune also turned against Surrey. Ben Foakes was injured in the pre-match warm-up – struck on the elbow by a stray ball from Stuart Meaker. Then Azhar Mahmood’s involvement ended prematurely when the Blast’s elder statesman, at 41, propped forward to his second delivery and damaged a calf badly enough to play no further part, unable even to bat with a runner which is still allowed in English domestic cricket. A long lay-off looks …
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