SURREY V GLAMORGAN at Guildford (LVCC2), 15-18 JUNE 2015

The only unbeaten outfits in Division Two of the LV County Championship, not to mention those closest to breathing down the neck of table toppers Lancashire, go head-to-head at Guildford; which has not played host to a Surrey victory in the championship since 2002.

With four draws being followed by victories over Essex and Northants, Michael Hogan's return to fitness has played its part in Glamorgan's change in fortunes, but isn't the main reason why the Welshmen have sparked into life in recent weeks. The 34-year-old Australian has taken 18 championship wickets at an average of 24.00, while Meschede and Wagg have bagged 20 wickets apiece. But no, if anyone the catalyst has been 22-year-old off-spinner Andrew Salter, who now ousts the evergreen Dean Cosker when two twirlers is considered an extravagance. Seaming all-rounder, David Lloyd, who has arguably made more of a contribution with the bat than the ball thus far, is said to be close to being fit again following a hamstring injury.

Glamorgan's top order batting relies heavily on skipper Jacques Rudolph (429 championship runs at 47.66). That said, should the exhilarating Craig Meschede gets in, the tail is more than capable of making amends if the out-and-out batters fail to do their job. The question is how much longer can the likes of Cooke, Ingram and Wallace continue to squander decent starts? Will Bragg is the interesting one. His all-or-nothing championship form this season reads: 120, 6, 37, 14, 104, 0, 17, 13, 4 and 26*.

Assuming he plays, Zafar Ansari will be making his 50th first-class appearance. The 24-year-old all-rounder is also closing in on 2,000 f-c career runs. He currently has 1,998 under his belt. Turning to the Glamorgan side, Colin Ingram goes into this contest with 4,983 first-class runs.

The horrific collision between Rory Burns (concussion) and Moises Henriques (broken jaw) in today's T20 game at Arundel, seems likely to result in some unexpected line-up changes with Arun Harinath, Aneesh Kapil and Vikram Solanki all in contention for their first championship appearances of the season. The Surrey CCC Supporters' Club wishes both Rory and Moises a full and speedy recovery. Of course, Burns was playing at Arundel in place of Steven Davies, who fractured a finger on his left hand attempting a slips catch in Surrey's championship visit to Leicester. Also, Henriques was due to deputise for Kumar Sangakkara, who is now on international duty, as will Gary Wilson be this week.

Unfortunately an encouraging weather forecast - they're saying day three will be extremely temperate - isn't matched by Surrey's form at Woodbridge Road. Since the hosts go into this game with a run of wins punctuated by draws, I'm going draw; which wouldn't be the worst result in the world, not just given today's events at Arundel, but also bearing in mind that Glamorgan appear to be the Oval outfit's main rivals for the second of the two promotion spots.

J Rudolph (capt), W Bragg, B Wright, C Ingram, C Cooke, M Wallace (wk), G Wagg, C Meschede, A Salter, R Smith and M Hogan.

Paul Baldwin and Steve O'Shaughnessy.

GO TO:




BACK TO: