SURREY V WARWICKSHIRE at the Kia Oval (RCC)
8-11 SEPTEMBER 2025

The Division One leaders play host to the fourth-placed Bears. Surrey's five-wicket victory away to Durham in red-ball's last round of matches increased the points margin to Notts, their nearest challengers, to 11. Since Warwickshire last went toe-to-toe with Rory Burn's men, they've lost to Hampshire, beaten Worcestershire and been engaged in four draws. In short, they will be no pushover, which also goes for when Nottinghamshire face them in the final round.

When they have played, seamers Chris Rushworth (7 championship wickets at 11 runs apiece) and Michael Booth have made a real difference to Warwickshire's attack, which has relied upon Ethan Bamber (34 at 34.85) and Ed Barnard (24 at 37.25). But keep an eye out for 19-year-old leg-spinner Tazeem Ali (11 at 36.81), who recently took 18 wickets at an average of 20.11 in the One-Day Cup.

The acquisition of New Zealand top order batter Tom Latham (485 championship runs at 53.88) has turned the Bears into an extremely resilient batting outfit. But the stars have been Sam Hain (671 runs at 61.00) and Ed Barnard (815 at 58.21). Barnard has hit three centuries to Zen Malik's two, while Rob Yates has chipped in at regular intervals.

Surrey v Warwickshire - First-Class Records Sheet

Both Rory Burns (13,891) and Jason Roy (4,878) need another 110-120 runs or so for 14,000 and 5,000 in first-class cricket. Dan Worrall will start the game with 399 f-c wickets. Turning to Warwickshire... Tom Latham (11,962), Sam Hain (7,868), Ed Barnard (5,890) and Rob Yates (3,959) are approaching 12,000, 8,000, 6,000 and 4,000 first-class career runs respectively. Oliver Hannon-Dalby (391) needs another 9 wickets for 400 in f-c cricket.

Sam Curran, Will Jacks and Jamie Smith are on England white-ball duty. At the time of writing, it also seems unlikely there will be any overseas representation.

Surrey have won each of their last 5 championship clashes with Warwickshire at the Oval. However, days three and four could well be dominated by rain. If the forecasters are to be believed, the same goes for the outlook for Worcester, where Notts are playing the Pears. Prediction - draw.

R.Yates, A.Davies (capt), T.Latham, S.Hain, D.Mousley, Z.Malik, E.Barnard, K.Smith (wk), E.Bamber, T.Ali and O.Hannon-Dalby.

Michael Gough and Jack Shantry.

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