Lions defeat in opener
By Ben Horne
April 18 2005
Surrey slipped to a 43 run defeat at home to Yorkshire in their first tote sport league game of the season. Matt Wood hit 111 as Yorkshire scored 334 from their 45 overs, this was manly because of a short boundary, which Surrey later took advantage off.
Wood and Harvey were in blistering from for the tykes, after White won the toss and decided to bat. Harvey hit his half centaury from just 35 balls. He was eventually dismissed by Nayan Doshi for 69 from 48 balls. Phil Jaques continued the assault with 48 from 39 balls. Lumb then hot 29 to give Wood useful support. He was finally dismissed for a breathtaking 111 from 127 balls, which contained 16 fours and a six. Anthony McGrath then hit 48 from 23 balls to help the tykes reach 334. For Surrey Rikki Clarke and new singing Mohammad Akram were both poor, with Clarke conceding 65 from 7 overs and Akram 78 from 9.Nayan Doshi was once again the pick of the Surrey bowlers taking 2 for 38 from 9. Surrey needed a good start and it was surprising to see youngster James Benning open the batting instead of Ali Brown. However Newman and Benning put on 78 for the opening wicket. Benning continued with Ramprakash after Thorpe was dismissed for 0. Benning reached 44 before he fell to Harvey. Ramprakash and Brown then added 83 and left the lions in a strong poison. Stand in captain Ramprakash fell for 38 to Hoggard to leave Surrey 190 for 4. Clarke completed a bad game as he dismissed for just 11. Needing just 78 from 12 overs, Surrey were in a strong position. Their chances then fell away as they slipped from 261 for 5 to 263 for 8 in just three overs. Firstly Brown fell for an impressive 89 from just 46 balls, thus justifying Surrey’s decision to bat him lower down in the order. Murtagh and Ormond followed shortly after and despite John Batty’s late efforts, Surrey still lost by 43 runs. The lions are going to have to drastically improve if they are to gain promotion back to the first division.