SURREY V ESSEX at Whitgift School (LVCC2), 31 MAY - 3 JUNE 2006

Tomorrow's Liverpool Victoria County Championship clash at Whitgift School has all the makings of a pivotal contest. Like Surrey, the evens favourites for the title, Essex are shoulder to shoulder with the early front-runners Derbyshire.

Ronnie Irani's men owe their lofty position to an innings victory over Glamorgan followed by a successful run chase against Somerset. Prominent on both occasions was Andy Flower, the former Zimbabwe captain and wicketkeeper, who made 169 at Cardiff and 161 in the first innings at Taunton.

Flower, whose brother Grant had been opening the batting until Arul Chopra came from nowhere to make 106 and 50 not out against Gloucestershire, no longer finds any use for his keeping gloves with James Foster around. Foster, who has appeared seven times in Tests for England, is still regarded as one of the leading stumpers in the country.

Even when bowling sides have disposed of the likes of Ravi Bopara, who is widely tipped as a star of the future, Foster and the all-round quartet of Andre Adams, James Middlebrook, Gavin Napier and Ryan ten Doeschate have caused the tail to wag to great effect.

But for injuries to former England fast bowlers Darren Gough (hamstring) and Alex Tudor (knee), coupled with the late arrival of their second overseas player, Andy Bichel, the Chelmsford-based outfit could well have a clear lead at the top of the table at this point. But spinner Tim Phillips has seized being given a regular berth with both hands.

Other absentees for Essex will be Alistair Cook, who is on England duty, and opening batsman Will Jefferson, who is taking longer than expected to get over the recent operation to his left wrist.

Amongst the Essex ranks, Alex Tudor has 292 first-class wickets, while Tim Phillips has so far taken 48 wickets for his county. For Surrey, Jonathan Batty has 390 f-c dismissals, James Benning 963 runs, Nayan Doshi 90 wickets and Ian Salisbury 796 wickets.

Alistair Brown's shaky early season form in the LVCC - 98 runs at an average of fourteen - sees him miss a championship game for the first time since Surrey's visit to Northampton at the end of July 2004. James Benning retains his place, therefore. Jimmy Ormond is still thought to be a fortnight away from being ready to play first team cricket again, but the good news is that Martin Bicknell is over his groin injury and looks set to continue his record of not missing a championship match at Whitgift.  

Make no mistake, this will be a hard-fought match. Surrey haven't lost a championship fixture at Whitgift, so, given that you cannot fit a fag-paper in-between these two sides, I am predicting that there's a first time for everything. Essex win.

V Chopra, M Pettini, R Bopara, A Flower, R Irani (capt), J Foster (wk), R ten Doeschate, J Middlebrook, T Phillips, A Adams and A Palladino.

Graham Burgess and John Holder.

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