IT FEELS LIKE AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE – MEDLYCOTT by Marcus Hook
Kent 535 v Surrey 125 and 255. Kent win by an innings and 155 runs.

Yesterday morning Surrey’s last three wickets put on 86 runs in just 45 minutes, as the Kent attack was sent to all parts of the St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury. Unfortunately, it was not in a winning cause, but a losing one.

The visitors may have avoided the embarrassment of being dismissed for less than 200 in each innings – something that last occurred in May 2000, against Durham – but they could not stave off their first defeat by an innings since the final game of the 1998 season when Leicestershire won by an innings and 211 runs and with it that year’s County Championship.

With this loss coming on the heels of an eight-wicket defeat against Lancashire, history repeated itself. The last time Surrey were on the receiving end twice in a row in the championship was back in September 1997 when they lost to Lancashire and then Kent.

“We’re not here to make excuses,” Keith Medlycott, Surrey’s cricket manager, said afterwards. “You can talk about injuries and call-ups. These things have an effect, but we’ve had that for the last seven years. We’ve played two sides in the last two games who have played bloody well. We haven’t performed to half the level we would like and if you add those things together, there’s only one side that’s going to win and that’s the quality side,” he added.

Medlycott admitted: “Everyone’s tired, not just Surrey, but everyone’s tired. We have openly have tried to win three stroke four and create a bit of history. We’ve seen everything as a cup final, but they [the Surrey players] have taken a lot out of themselves and I think when you don’t play so well, your injuries, your tiredness, all those other aspects, suddenly play a slightly bigger role than maybe they do when you’re playing well and you’re on nervous energy.”

The Surrey supremo paid tribute to his players, but admitted that morale was a concern. He said: “I have to give the players utmost credit because last week we lost our first [championship] game in fourteen months. We’ve now been done back-to-back, which is harsh. For us it feels like an absolute nightmare. It hasn’t happened in the last six or seven years. We’ve produced so much high quality over such a quality length of time. At the moment it hurts. That dressing room is like a morgue. We’re going into a game next Sunday, where we potentially lift a trophy, but at the moment it feels that everything’s distraught and we’ve come to the end.”

Surrey’s run of seven wins against Kent in all competitions ended with Muttiah Muralitharan taking four for 90, but the Sri Lankan did not have it all his own way. Ian Salisbury straight drove him for four in the second over of the day. Two overs later Jimmy Ormond dropped him over long-on for six, to bring up the 200, and Franklyn Rose did likewise in what proved to be the game’s penultimate over.

But the visitors lost Salisbury, lbw playing across the line to Martin Saggers, Ormond to a straightforward catch at silly mid-off and finally Rose, who was down the pitch and mowing to cover, having just hit his executioner, Rob Ferley, for three fours in one over.

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