Surrey remained firmly on top of their County Championship clash against Hampshire at The Kia Oval, despite weather which wrecked most of the second day’s play. Matt Fisher provided sparkle with the ball, posting two key wickets for England but rain allowed Surrey to get away from a nearly 400-run first-innings lead.
Surrey, who posted an impressive 421 in their first innings thanks to a brilliant double century from Dan Lawrence, would be hoping for more breakthrough with the batters of Hampshire on Day 2. But rain had interrupted play during the day and limited it to just 24.4 overs over two sessions.
Hampshire finished day two on 122 for 3, still requiring another 299 runs to beat Surrey. The visitors have a laborious task of avoiding the follow-on, requiring another 150 runs to do so.
With wet weather delaying proceedings cricket for most of the day, raceday finally got underway following an initial Great Western Railway service at 1:45 PM. Although there wasn’t much in the way of action, The Kia Oval crowd had plenty to cheer about early on as Surrey’s bowlers made a number of breakthroughs with hundreds of schoolchildren attending Surrey’s annual Schools Day event.
Matt Fisher was the man of the session in early exchanges. The England seamer, who was originally named in the squad for next week’s first Test against New Zealand, revelled in helpful conditions. Hampshire’s batters found themselves in a challenging environment with dark skies, floodlights on at the start and lights flickering away.
After doing all the hard work, Hampshire were back on 17 without loss to resume their innings but Fisher quickly seized control for Surrey. Toby Albert was the first casualty after the visitors had added a handful to move onto 30. Fisher bowled a nice delivery which was well pitched on good length, but quickly seamed away after landing. The delivery, which crashed into the top of Albert’s off stump for 16 didn’t offer much in defence.
Moments later, when Liam Dawson fell to Fisher too, Hampshire’s hopes were again dented. The Surrey pacer proved a handful for Ali Orr, making his first County Championship appearance of the season. It earned the inside edge of Orr’s bat off a delivery that swung back sharply, and Tom Curran at mid-on took the catch comfortably.
Hampshire found themselves under new pressure and soon after a belligerent Babar was sent back having scored 46 from only 31 balls, rain once again fell forcing players off the field. Now, Surrey needed momentum but rain interrupted for over three hours.
Once play was able to resume in the evening, Hampshire’s Nick Gubbins and Jake Lehmann looked rather more at home. The duo chipped in with some crucial runs and slowly
rebuilt the innings. Gubbins, especially, was maintaining his remarkable record at The Oval where he has done so well throughout the years.
The left-handed batsman completed his half-century and scored his eighth tournament fifty at the venue. He was offered a reprieve earlier in his innings when, on 33, Surrey captain Rory Burns dropped him at slip off the bowling of Jordan Clark.
But Gubbins could not make the most of this break. He was eventually out trapped lbw to Clark for 51 just after reaching his fifty. The wicket gained Surrey their first bowling bonus point and ended a budding alliance.
After Gubbins’ departure, nightwatchman Sonny Baker & Jake Lehmann saw the visitors through to stumps without further loss Both had the advantage of probably better batting conditions than we saw for most of the day.
Surrey were still in charge despite Hampshire’s resistance late on the evening of Day 2. It is expected to be better for the next two days with only their second County Championship win of the season at stake and that will give belief to a home side looking forward.
Hampshire, propping up the table for now will surely be looking to avoid a follow-on. There is still plenty to do but Surrey’s bowlers will be determined that a strong position turns into a probably championship-winning one.
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