Young Brown Caps Fall to Spitfires

28 June 2009

A very young Brown Caps side fell to a brave defeat against the Kent Spitfires at Beckenham, eventually falling to a battling loss by sixteen runs.

Despite a more than creditable total of 168/9, the inexperienced Surrey line up – featuring Simon King making his debut for the Club in all forms of the game and Laurie Evans making his Twenty20 bow – were unable to combat the power and strength in depth of a Kent team with more than half of its players possessing top level international experience.

After winning the toss and batting in front of a good crowd at Beckenham, Joe Denly and Robert Key got Kent off to a sprightly start, with Denly in particular playing some big shots from the outset before trying one hook too many off Chris Jordan and being well caught by Gary Wilson who had turned tail and run down behind himself to get in position.

Key was joined by Surrey’s traditional South African nemesis Martin van Jaarsveld and the score continued to tick over at a good rate, reaching 50 after six overs before the introduction of Matthew Spriegel did for Key who was caught by Tim Linley getting a top edge from a cross batted swipe.

Another international, Geraint Jones, joined van Jaarsveld and the pair put together a partnership that delighted a partisan crowd, moving the score from 53/2 to 149 before the Kolpak bruiser – on 64 – tried to sweep a full ball from Chris Jordan and lost his leg stump.

Two runs later, Jones was also gone, hitting one straight to mid wicket and being pouched by captain Stewart Walters for 47.

With the two mainstays of the innings dismissed, Kent struggled to keep up their momentum and were reduced to a series of big hits and quick wickets. Darren Stevens hit a giant straight six and was caught on the boundary next ball, Justin Kemp stumped first ball by Gary Wilson and, after seeing off Matthew Spriegel’s hat trick ball, Ryan McLaren blasted three boundaries for his 18 that helped Kent post the imposing total of 184/7.

In reply, Michael Brown and Chris Jordan tucked into the opening over, hitting the medium pace of Darren Stevens with abandon. Although Azhar Mahmood and then Amjad Khan proved harder to score off, the two still played well and had posted 41 when Jordan skied an attempted big hit and was well taken by a diving Khan for 20.

Brown went next, surviving one top edge but going for the same shot next ball and being caught by James Tredwell for 23. That left Stewart Walters and Chris Murtagh to build a platform for a later attack, which they did perfectly.

Walters scored 21 from 18 balls and Murtagh 28 from 23 as they ran well together and scored occasional boundaries to keep up with the exacting rate set by Kent. However, just as both seemed set they were dismissed in quick succession, Walters bowled by Khan after missing a pull and Murtagh run out by a direct hit from that man van Jaarsveld, pulling for a quick single.

Grant Elliott, with some mighty blows and Matthew Spriegel, slightly more conservatively, kept Surrey in the game but it was always tough to keep with the rate and Elliott was eventually caught on the boundary by McLaren for 22.

Spriegel kept going, partnered by Laurie Evans and had fully opened his shoulders and started to score quickly when he smashed one down to deep mid on and was excellently caught by Justin Kemp, who dived forward to take the ball inches from the ground.

Although Evans, Gary Wilson, Simon King and Tim Linley tried everything under the sun to pull out a dramatic victory, the rate was always too high and – with the exception of King who ended up not out for 5 off 3 balls – perished either going for a big hit or unlikely run.

In the end, Walters’ young side were just caught short, losing by sixteen runs to the table topping Spitfires, who earned a home tie in the quarter finals with their victory.

Surrey are back in action on Tuesday at Lord's when they play a London derby against Middlesex in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship Division Two.