Surrey slump continues

By Ben Horne
August 6 2002

Surrey slumped to their second defeat at Whitgift when rivals Middlesex beat them by 65 runs. Owais Shah scored 110 and Paul Weeks took 3 wickets for crusaders.

After being put into bat by Adam Hollioake, Middlesex got off to a flying start taking 21 off the first two overs. However, the wickets of Laraman and Koenig, who never seemed to get going, saw them in a little trouble at 60-2. Owais Shah’s arrival at the wicket was announced with some fine strokes that saw him share in a stand of 90 with Andrew Strauss. Strauss looked on course for a hundred, when he was unluckily run out for 74, many spectators believing that the wrong decision was made. Shah's form, to the dismay of the lions, continued as he brought up his century from only 89 balls. This was the first National League century for almost 3 years, the last coming at Lords when the same man hit the same team for 112. Today he made 110 hitting eight fours and four huge sixes. Middlesex eventually reached an impressive 274-8 off their 45 overs.

Surrey’s reply began disastrously as Aaron Laraman trapped Ian Ward infront in the first over. Matters were not helped when Mark Ramprakash was run out, in what again seemed to be a dubious decision. Ali Brown, however, played his usual game and raced to 50 off just 34 balls. His stand of 56 with Nadeem Shahid began to rescue the game for surrey until Shahid was unluckily dismissed. Brown hit a powerful straight drive, which hit Shahid's bat so hard that he dropped it and was consequently run out. After that, the spin of Paul Weekes and Jamie Dalrymple slowed Surrey down and caused the fall of five more wickets and brought Middlesex to the brink of victory. Two consecutive large sixes from Phil Sampson delayed the inevitable, but eventually Ian Jones yorked Sampson to secure a 65 run win the crusaders.

Middlesex Innings: Surrey won toss

Strauss run out (Ward) 74
Laraman lbw b Giddins 7
Koenig c Saqlain Mushtaq b Murtagh 9
Shah c Brown b Giddins 110
Joyce c Hollioake b Saqlain Mushtaq 15
Weekes c Brown b Hollioake 20
Dalrymple c Brown b Giddins 1
Cook c Murtagh b Hollioake 11
Nash not out 10

Extras 17

Total (for 8 wickets, 45 overs) 274

Surrey Innings:

Ward lbw b Laraman 4
Brown c Koenig b Weekes 94
Ramprakash run out (Strauss) 10
Clarke c Keegan b Laraman 10
Shahid run out (Cook) 6
Hollioake b Dalrymple 15
Batty c and b Weekes 19
Saqlain Mushtaq c Shah b Weekes 16
Murtagh b Dalrymple 3
Sampson b Jones 16
Giddins not out 4

Extras 12

Total (all out, 38.1 overs) 209

Result: Middlesex Crusaders win by 65 runs