Brown Caps fall to first T20 defeat

26 May 2009

The Surrey Brown Caps dropped to one win and one defeat in the 2009 Twenty20 Cup after falling to a 21 run loss at home to the Sussex Sharks.

After Surrey lost the toss and were told to field, Ed Joyce and particularly Chris Nash got off to a great start, smashing the opening overs of Pedro Collins and Andre Nel to all corners of the Brit Oval and racing to a 50 partnership, the majority of which came from Nash.

However, the introduction of Grant Elliott proved an excellent move as once again the New Zealander got a wicket with his first ball, Joyce hitting him high down the ground for Chris Schofield to take a running catch in front of the rapidly filling OCS Stand.

Elliott nearly had two in two balls but Pedro Collins was just unable to hold on to a tricky catch from Luke Wright, a punishment doubled when Sussex took a single and Nash was able to welly the next ball down the ground for four.

The opener had accelerated to 40 off just 16 balls when Collins struck next over, yorking him all ends up with the score on 66. The Bajan paceman then took the dangerous Dwayne Smith second ball, getting his fellow West Indian to hit straight to Grant Elliott at cover, who took a simple catch.

Wright was joined by captain Michael Yardy, clearly quite prepared to play second fiddle to his more big hitting team mate, who played cleverly and showed a decent Brit Oval crowd why he is considered one of England’s danger men in the game’s shortest form.

The hundred was up after ten overs exactly, but the introduction of Matthew Spriegel and Chris Schofield had slowed the scoring rate and Yardy was caught by Spriegel off Schofield trying to up it again, the young all rounder making a hard catch look easy at long off.

Rory Hamilton-Brown was the next to support Wright – who by this stage had dispatched Usman Afzaal for a six that hit the away dressing room on the full – playing well for a run a ball 15 before being caught by Grant Elliott running around at the Vauxhall End off Spriegel.

The dangerous Yasir Arafat was run out following a combination of confusion between him and Wright and excellent work from Gary Wilson and then Wright himself went, bowled by Schofield for a 58 off 48 balls that had held the Sharks’ innings together.

Andre Nel had Ben Brown LBW in his very good final over and then Robin Martin-Jenkins was also run out after a good diving throw from Spriegel close in on the off side. Finally, Will Beer managed to hit some lusty blows in the last over – bowled by Collins – for Sussex to post a fully defendable target of 184/9.

When the first two overs of the Brown Caps’ reply were maidens from Wright and Arafat, Chris Adams’ men were always going to be up against it, especially so when Usman Afzaal – inspirational the day before against Middlesex – was caught at third man off the veteran James Kirtley for two.

Mark Ramprakash and Scott Newman then put together a dangerous partnership, hitting some crunching sixes, particularly off Robin Martin-Jenkins before Ramprakash was bowled by Michael Yardy for 23 off 13 balls.

When Newman was caught by Wright later in the same over, the Brown Caps were in a hole and after James Benning was bowled by Will Beer and Matthew Spriegel followed shortly afterwards to Yardy, they were 108/5.

If not for a superb knock from Stewart Walters, the margin of defeat could have been greater. However, the naturalised Australian played brilliantly to almost single-handedly keep alive a slim hope of victory, crunching some big hits alongside good running with the ever resilient Chris Schofield.

With the rate climbing higher and higher, Walters was bowled by Dwayne Smith for 34 off 20 balls and despite Schofield, Grant Elliott and Gary Wilson never giving up the ghost, an excellent penultimate over from Yasir Arafat left them needing 30 off the last over for the victory, a target of which they ended 21 short.

To watch full highlights of the game, please click on ‘Play Video’ in the top left corner of the image above.

The Brown Caps are back in action at the Brit Oval tomorrow, playing the Hampshire Hawks. The game will start at 6.30pm and tickets are still available from the Brit Oval box office on 08712 461100.