Monday, 11 April 2011

Two good debuts, needed to be three...

New players can always take a while to bed in, but it seems more so with the ball then the bat.

New signings Tom Maynard (72 total match runs) and Zander de Bruyn (126 total match runs) both put in good stints at the crease during a fascinating draw in the opening fixture of the 2011 season against Northants.

The worrying aspect of the whole four-days though was our inability to finish things off, or in the words of Tiger Woods "Get things done."

Where was that killer instinct? Obviously skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown has confidence in his attack because his second innings declaration was brave and bold, but it was a comfortable draw in the end for the visitors - when it should have been anything but.

Some of the blame has to lie with another debutant, Yasir Arafat. The Pakistan international, who will no doubt have a great role to play in the one-day format, just couldn't find a breakthrough and finished with dismal figures of 0-108 off 31 overs. Ok economy, but that is not what we need from a new ball bowler.

When Jade Dernbach returns Arafat should move to first change, but he will need to learn to swing it at the Oval - a feat that has proved elusive for some of the top players around the world.

I should not be too critical, because I was there on Friday and I was very impressed with the positive approach to the game, nearly 350 runs in a day. The young batting line up will learn off Ramps later this season on how to convert a 20 or 30 into a match changing score.

And lets not forget that Surrey were in charge for a good 70 per cent of this game, if they get Chris Tremlett back for a while and also Mr Dernbach, they will have that fire power to turn draws into victories.

Surrey have every reason to be positive going to Wales next week to face Glamorgan.

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