By Bruce Talbot
Surrey made their highest T20 score at the Kia Oval as they crushed understrength Glamorgan by 81 runs to chalk up a fifth win in their last six Vitality Blast South Group games.
Opener Will Jacks top-scored with 69, his third fifty in this season’s competition, and there were cameos from Laurie Evans (40) and Sunil Narine (36) to lay the platform for a brutal assault by the Curran brothers in the closing overs.
Sam cleared the ropes six times as he smashed 59 off 22 balls and Tom contributed 23 off 13 as they plundered 80 runs from the last 33 deliveries before Sam was bowled looking to ramp Jamie McIlroy off the final ball of the innings. Surrey’s 238 for 5 was also the third highest score in their T20 history.
Glamorgan, whose injury issues meant they gave debuts to three players, also conceded their third highest score in the format. They made 157 for 8 in reply but despite this defeat still have a chance of reaching the knockout stages with four games to go.
With the influential Colin Ingram injured, Glamorgan have brought in New Zealand batter Cam Fletcher, 30, on a short-term basis. Fletcher has been playing in the Bradford League for New Farnley while batter Will Smale and right-armer Andy Govin were also making their debuts for the county in T20.
Gorvin was the only bowler whose economy rate was below ten an over as Surrey, put in on a green-tinged pitch, cruised along at 12 an over for most of their innings.
Jacks and Evans had 64 up in the powerplay before Evans, who made 118 when the teams met in Cardiff earlier this month, was superbly caught by wicketkeeper Chris Cooke cutting leg-spinner Peter Hatzoglou in the seventh over just when he was starting to cut loose.
Glamorgan briefly stemmed the flow in the middle of the innings by claiming three wickets in 11 balls. Jacks, who’d hit eight fours and two sixes, cut to backward point and Sunil Narine (36 off 18) holed out to long off to give Hatzoglou two wickets in five balls. Jamie Overton top-edged a pull but that brought the Curran brothers together and the fun began.
McIlroy was hit for five sixes in his final two overs and Hatzoglou two with Sam Curran unveiling some eye-catching shots and clean hitting, the highlight the successive sixes off McIlroy down the ground in the final over as he passed fifty in the format for the 14th time. His was also Surrey’s joint-third quickest fifty (18 balls) in T20.
Asked to score at 12.25 an over Glamorgan had little option but attack but no one could play the substantial innings – or do so quickly enough – to give them a chance.
Kiran Carlson was caught on the square-leg boundary in Sam Curran’s first over; fellow opener Smale hit 27 off 16 balls only to drive Gus Atkinson’s slower ball to Tom Curran at long on; and debutant wicketkeeper Josh Blake took a brilliant one-handed catch to his right to remove Sam Northeast.
Billy Root (31) added 48 for the fourth wicket with Cooke, who top scored with 49 off 28 balls before holing out off Chris Jordan. The Surrey skipper finished with 4 for 21 and Narine picked up 2 for 25.
Jacks said: “We’re very happy to bounce back from the defeat on Sunday and in some style too.
“I got nought on Sunday so anything was going to be better than that and I was pleased with my 69. We like to chase so it was good practice for us to bat first and overall it was a good batting performance from us.
“They had a big total to chase and we wanted to try and defend 160-170 and we did that. It was nice to see a few guys get wickets and overall I thought we performed really well.”
Glamorgan’s Cooke added: “We didn’t really hit our straps with the ball early on and chasing 238 was always going to be a tough ask against Surrey, who are a class act with the ball.
“I feel in pretty good nick and it was nice to go out there and middle a few but it’s a heavy defeat and we need to regroup.
“We had a good chat afterwards. We’ve probably got to win three of our last four so we’ve got four cup finals basically, starting against Somerset tomorrow. It’s a quick turnaround but hopefully we can kick-start our campaign against them.”
