By Bruce Talbot
Champions Surrey recorded their first win of the season in emphatic style, beating Somerset by eight wickets at the Kia Oval.
Dan Worrall and Jordan Clark shared six wickets as Somerset were bowled out for 119, having conceded a first-innings deficit of 84. Surrey knocked off their target of 36 in 5.2 overs and moved up to second in the table. behind early leaders Nottinghamshire.
At one stage Somerset lost six wickets for thirteen runs in eight overs and were 38 for seven after Clark and Worrall proved too good with a new ball that swung nicely.
Somerset, winless after four games, were complicit in their own downfall with some soft dismissals in the post-lunch period when five wickets went down in 34 balls for just four runs. Migael Pretorious held up Surrey with 54 but it was only delaying the inevitable.
Somerset had dismissed Surrey for 367 an hour into the third day but were soon in trouble.
They lost Archie Vaughan to the sixth ball of the innings thanks to a fine catch by wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who dived full length when Vaughan leg-glanced Worrall.
With Sean Dickson unable to bat because of a broken finger, Josh Davey came in at three and he and Tom Lammonby did well to get through the rest of Worrall’s skilful five-over opening spell. Davey, who batted at ten in the first innings, appeared to relish the extra responsibility when he took two boundaries off Gus Atkinson in an over with a straight drive and sweetly timed clip through mid-wicket.
But the stand was broken in off-spinner Dan Lawrence’s first over when he skidded his fifth ball into Lammonby’s pads. Surrey sensed blood, and they ran through Somerset in a remarkable period after lunch.
Tom Abell clipped the first ball of the session from Clark off middle stump to fine leg for four but shouldered arms to the next delivery and lost his off stump. Davey (17) unluckily played on two balls later and in the next over Dan Worrall dived low to his left to intercept a full-blooded drive by Tom Banton in his follow through which was followed by an elaborate celebration.
It got worse for Somerset. They were 38 for six in the 18th over after Kasey Aldridge’s attempted pull at Clark cannoned off the bottom edge into his stumps. Worrall struck again in his next over when James Rew’s clip off his pads was caught by the diving Lawrence at backward square leg to leave Somerset staring down the barrel at 38 for seven.
Pretorious kept them waiting with an attacking 54 off 45 balls, including eight fours, as he and skipper Lewis Gregory put on 79 for the eighth wicket and it took a fine one-handed catch by Foakes to break the stand and give James Taylor a deserved wicket. Taylor finished the innings when he had Jack Leach caught at slip.
Dom Sibley was caught at square leg and Ollie Pope played across a straight ball from Davey before Jamie Smith hit the winning boundary to mid-wicket. Victory lifted them into second place behind early leaders Nottinghamshire.
At the start of the day, Surrey’s final three wickets added a further 46 runs. Lawrence followed up his 117 against Sussex last week with an unbeaten 55 off 74 balls with seven fours as Pretorious, Davey and Aldridge took a wicket apiece.
“We’re very happy, it’s nice to do it in three days – I didn’t have that on my bingo card when I woke up this morning,” Surrey’s Clark said. “It was a good surface to bowl on but if you missed there were runs to be had, and if we’re being critical of ourselves we might have gone bigger in the first innings.
“We put in a really good bowling performance as a unit and a 40,60,80 run lead which we had can be massive at The Oval and then when we bowled again there were some good catches – it was a great team performance.
“Personally, you lose and find rhythm and it sort of clicked for me after that first three overs on day one. It’s still quite early in the season so hopefully I can really hit my straps in the next few weeks.”
Somerset coach Jason Kerr said: “It’s hard to describe what happened after lunch, because it was still a good pitch to bat on but there can be no excuses for it. It’s one of the things we have just talked about in the dressing room – if you want to be a successful side you can’t afford collapses like that.
“I take all the responsibility. In my position comes accountability – you get no credit when the side does well and all the accountability when they don’t perform. I know how hard the guys are working and how good they are as individuals but today was nowhere near good enough.”
