SOMERSET SABRES V SURREY BROWN CAPS at Taunton (Pro 40 League 2), 17 SEPTEMBER 2006

Will this be Surrey's last one-day game of the season, or will tomorrow's results throw them into the lottery of a play-off against the seventh-placed team in Division One of the Pro40, which seems likely to be Lancashire? Today's gritty performance at Worcester would suggest that the "lock-in" after Tuesday night's defeat to Gloucestershire had the desired effect; but why was Newman playing ahead of Benning? Anyway, Mark Butcher and his men just have to dig deep one more time to round the 2006 campaign off in style.

The bad news as far as the Brown Caps are concerned is that they have lost on six out of their last seven one-day visits to Taunton. That said, Somerset have had a disappointing season and if Surrey were given the choice of who they would want to be facing right now, they may well go for the Sabres.

Back in April the Cidermen had high hopes of youngsters like James Hildreth and Arul Suppiah. They had secured the services of two up-and-coming Aussies, and with Ian Blackwell unlikely to feature for England they were expecting to have a settled and challenging side all summer long. Anyway, that was the plan.

The reality has been that Blackwell has hardly played and, in one-day cricket, only Charl Willoughby (21 List A wickets at 29.09 runs apiece) has been a reliable performer with the ball. Andy Caddick has gone for more than five and a half runs per over and Richard Johnson has not been rewarded with the wickets he's deserved. That trio apart, Parsons, Suppiah and White have been okay, but not much more.

Putting runs on the board has been slightly less of a worry. Matthew Wood (653 runs at an average of 43.53) has passed fifty on seven occasions in the C&G Trophy and the Pro40 League. Stand-in skipper Cameron White was approaching 500 List A runs before returning to "Oz" and Hildreth has had his moments - like when he made 122 against Derbyshire ten days ago.

None worth a mention - sorry!

No additional worries to those we already know about.

On paper this should be a no contest, but I can't help thinking that the Taunton hoodoo will be at the back of everybody's minds. If Benning replaces Newman and Azhar Mahmood's knee injury holds up through one more outing, I think the Brown Caps will prove too strong for Andy Caddick's Sabres.

M Wood, A Suppiah, J Hildreth, K Parsons, J Francis, W Durston, P Trego, S Spurway (wk), R Johnson, A Caddick (capt) and C Willoughby.

Barry Dudleston and Trevor Jesty.

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