SURREY v LEICESTERSHIRE at Leicester (LVCC2), 26-29 APRIL 2006

Surrey should be buoyed by the fact that, in each of their last five championship clashes with Leicestershire, they have compiled at least one sizeable total. But making his championship debut for his new county tomorrow will be Pakistan's Mohammad Asif, whose credentials (he has taken 25 Test wickets in just five appearances) would suggest that he could be a match-winner for the Foxes.

Having said that, unless Stuart Broad can continue where he left off last summer, Asif could find himself ploughing a lone furrow with the new ball. As this season's matches progress Leicestershire will obviously be hoping that Henderson and Snape's spin can have a greater say than it did in 2004 and 2005. But the form book suggests it will take a spectacular shift in their confidence levels for it be realised.

With the bat, Darren Robinson (who has come through a late fitness test), HD Ackerman and India's Dinesh Mongia all acquitted themselves well last term. If Darren Maddy can just get back to where he belongs and keeper Paul Nixon can carry on defying the ageing process, the Foxes could prove difficult to breakdown.

Jimmy Ormond goes into this contest with a total of 192 f-c wickets for Surrey, while, in career terms, Mark Butcher, who is one away from his 30th f-c hundred, has 14,949 runs to his name and Tim Murtagh has 851. Hundreds for Alistair Brown, Scott Newman and Mark Ramprakash will also see notable first-class career landmarks being registered. Also worth noting are that Brown has made 910 f-c runs against Leicestershire, while Butcher's tally against the Grace Road outfit currently stands at 848. Finally, Rikki Clarke is one away from claiming his 50th championship wicket. 

Martin Bicknell and Mohammad Akram, both of whom are nursing groin injuries, are sidelined, which is a certainly a blow in Bicknell's case. Over the course of Martin's career Leicestershire's Darren Maddy has been his "rabbit" and, in total, Bickers has taken 77 Foxes wickets at an average of just 21.45. Anyway, in terms of who is playing tomorrow the same twelve as for the Derbyshire match, less Akram, but plus Tim Murtagh, has travelled up to Grace Road.

Well, the weather forecast suggests that we are in for four full days of cricket, so I can't continue to use the outlook as an excuse to sit on the fence. On the basis that Surrey are still the 2-1 favourites to win Division Two and Leicestershire are 20-1, and that you have to go back to 1995 to find the Brown Caps' last championship defeat at Grace Road, all I am prepared to say is that a home win would represent a major surprise. But could Mohammad Asif end up being the Foxes' secret weapon?    

D Robinson, D Maddy, H Ackerman, D Mongia, J Maunders, J Snape (capt), P Nixon (wk), S Broad, C Henderson, D Masters and Mohammad Asif.

Peter Hartley and Vanburn Holder.

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