Landmark Morning followed by Tough Afternoon

24 September 2009

A landmark day for Surrey Cricket did not end as well as it started with Glamorgan posting 271 without loss by the end of the second day of the ongoing LV County Championship match at the Brit Oval.

After Matthew Spriegel had raised his bat to celebrate becoming the first ever graduate of the Pemberton Greenish Surrey Academy to record a first-class century for the Club, Chris Jordan contributed a mature 42 but did not receive support from the tail as Surrey were all out for 430 shortly after lunch.

The day had started badly for Surrey when Usman Afzaal chopped on from Garnett Kruger without adding to his overnight 170 and the often sparky Chris Schofield went for eight after just 29 balls, also bowled by Kruger.

However, Jordan continued to show the good form with the bat that scored him his Championship winning 138 in the Second XI Championship final and played very well to partner Spriegel for over an hour.

Spriegel brought up his historic century with a single wide of mid off and removed his helmet to bathe in the warm applause both from a generous Brit Oval crowd and a packed home dressing room, clearly delighted to see a young Surrey star making a serious contribution at the highest level.

Sadly for him, it was not to last as shortly after reaching the landmark he hit a delivery from the wily Robert Croft to Dean Cosker at short cover and was caught for exactly 100.

Jordan put on 25 with Rangana Herath but was the next to go, caught behind by Mark Wallace off the consistently dangerous Kruger for 42. The little Sri Lankan went a run later, dismissed by the same combination for eight and the final partnership of Jade Dernbach and Richard Logan could only add a further four before Logan was trapped LBW by Cosker for a duck and the innings was all out for 430.

Surrey were hopeful of making an early breakthrough but when Logan enticed Mark Cosgrove into flashing a slip chance to Jordan in the eighth over, the catch went down and the Glamorgan opener had another life.

He was granted a further stay of execution around five overs later when Stewart Walters put down a more difficult chance off the bowling of Jordan, frantically diving in front of Spriegel at second slip to reach a low chance that he was just unable to hold onto.

That was that for wicket chances though as the aggressive Cosgrove and his more measured partner Gareth Rees took apart the Surrey attack. Cosgrove (145*) constantly looked for boundaries and was rewarded with 22 fours and a six in the afternoon’s play, whilst Rees (109*) played more defensively, bringing up his hundred shortly before the end of the day.

The two batted for 59 overs to put Glamorgan on 271/0 at the end, with a bedraggled Surrey bowling attack looking to comeback strongly tomorrow morning and get amongst the Glamorgan wickets.

To watch the highlights and hear from Matthew Spriegel click on the 'Play Video' button in the photo above.