By Mark Baldwin
Result: Lancashire 274 & 293 beat Surrey 360 & 84 by 123 runs
Lancashire 22pts, Surrey 6
Lancashire’s Tom Bailey and Will Williams took just 45 minutes to complete their team’s 123-run triumph against Surrey on day four at the Kia Oval – the county champions’ first defeat at their home ground in first-class cricket in nineteen matches, going back to August 2020.
Williams picked up 4 for 13 in just 4.3 overs on the final morning as Surrey were routed for 84, giving him overall figures of 4 for 23 while Bailey finished with 5 for 48.
The two pacemen took only 9.3 overs to snatch Surrey’s last five second innings wickets to end a run of eighteen first-class games at the Oval in which the current LV= Insurance County Championship Division One leaders have won 12 and drawn the other six.
Bailey, whose heroic 11-over new ball spell of four for 34 on the third evening had helped to reduce Surrey to 57 for five overnight – still 151 runs away from their 208 fourth innings target – made the initial breakthrough in his second over of the morning, having nightwatchman Tom Lawes caught behind for 10.
And then Williams got into the act, bowling Will Jacks for 20 in the next over as the Surrey all-rounder shouldered arms to one that jagged back into him off the seam.
Batting was not straightforward against a ball still less than 30 overs old and in overcast conditions, with the Oval floodlights on, and later in the same over Williams grabbed the wicket Lancashire wanted above all others on the final morning as Sam Curran was bowled off stump for 12 by another superb ball angled across him by the New Zealander and then nipping back.
Williams, however, was still not finished. In his third over of the day the 30-year-old – who made 61 in a four-hour stint as nightwatchman, a maiden first-class half-century, in Lancashire’s second innings 293 – had Sean Abbott taken by keeper Phil Salt for a duck.
Abbott had hit an unbeaten 87 in Surrey’s first innings of 360, adding a remarkable 130 for the tenth wicket with Dan Worrall, but now the Australian was gone to his third ball and at 75 for nine, having lost four wickets in 20 balls, Surrey could only hope for another final wicket miracle.
It did not come this time, with Worrall finishing six not out as Jordan Clark, aiming a big hit, skied Williams to mid off to go for four and spark Lancashire celebrations. This was Lancashire’s second win of the championship season, and they remain unbeaten; for title favourites Surrey, however, it is a sobering setback.
Surrey captain Rory Burns said: “We are obviously very disappointed indeed to lose and to be bowled out for 84 and not to be able to chase down 208. We would have taken that sort of last innings target, so you have to give huge credit to Lancashire and say hats off to the way they bowled.
“They certainly put the ball regularly in good areas and it was offering a little bit. I think playing with the floodlights on both last evening and again this morning meant that the surface quickened up a little too.
“The pitch was certainly a bit more favourable to the bowlers in those conditions but with the Kookaburra balls you do have to make the most of the first 40 overs in an innings because they go a little bit soft as they get older. So fair play to Lancashire’s bowlers for doing that yesterday and this morning.
“For us, we have to regroup and I do think there are a number of positives we can still take from this match. Our bowlers were good throughout, as was our fielding, and we fought hard to get to 360 in our first innings. Overall, though, I do think we could have batted a bit better than we did in this match and it is disappointing to be beaten after all the hard work we put in over the previous three days.”
Lancashire head coach Glen Chapple said: “To come to the Oval and beat Surrey is a brilliant achievement by everyone, at the end of what was a really good game of cricket.
“We were ahead in the match after day one and then behind after day two, but throughout we have shown a lot of fight and real quality. There was great determination in our second innings, too, to get back into the game again and to set them a fourth innings target that was not as big as we would have wanted but was still challenging enough.
“But the bowling performance last evening and then again this morning was simply outstanding. I don’t think the conditions were that helpful, to be honest – it was more a case of the bowling being really accurate and relentless. We showed a lot of drive out there in the field, and that’s exactly what you need if you are going to beat a really top team like Surrey on their own ground.
“I am sure Surrey will feel a bit shell-shocked after that but both Tom Bailey and Will Williams must take huge credit for the way they bowled in that second innings. Tom hits the seam every ball, he’s got height and a great engine as he showed in that 11-over opening spell last night.
“Both Tom and Will keep coming at you and they are good bowlers on good pitches because they don’t stop doing the right things. It’s a great win and we have players who are getting better and better in red-ball cricket so that’s very encouraging for us.”
