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Surrey reached a massive 671 runs for nine wickets during their County Championship Division One tournament on Day 2 of their match in Beckenham on Friday, May 13. What makes their achievement more better is that none of their players scored a century, with Ollie Pope finishing the first innings as their highest scorer with 96 runs in 184 balls.
Including Ollie, seven other Surrey players scored half-centuries, but it was their middle order that shone with the bat as the Kent bowlers found it hard to find wickets. Pope set up a fourth-wicket partnership of 178 runs with Ben Foakes, who also scored 91 runs in 166 balls to lift his team to 318 for four at the end of Day 1.
The main star, however, with Jamie Overton, whose 92-ball 93 at a strike rate of 101.08 lifted his team to the 400-run mark, before he was dismissed by George Linde in the 119th over of their innings.
The lower order also joined the party, with Sam Curran (78 runs in 95 balls) and New Zealander Colin de Grandhomme (66 runs in 103 balls) carrying their team in 587. De Grandhomme was their last wicket, before Jordan Clark and Daniel Worrall played unbeaten knocks of 54 and 44 respectively, to take Surrey to an above par score of 671 as Rory Burns decided to declare the innings with nine wickets gone.
Although the Kent bowlers struggled, they managed to dismiss nine of the Surrey batters before Burns declared. Leading the line was South African Nathan Gilchrist, who picked up three wickets for 121 runs in 27 overs. Matt Quinn and Linde picked up two wickets each.
At the time of writing, Ben Compton and Daniel Bell-Drummond were on strike for Surrey, who were 23/1 in the 14th over of their innings. It will be interesting to see whether Surrey, who are currently leading the Division One standings with 94 runs, can win their second consecutive match of the ongoing tournament.
