As far as Surrey are concerned, New Road has not been a happy hunting ground in the County Championship. The Oval outfit have only scored one victory in their last 12 visits, against five defeats during the same period.

Worcestershire were favourites with most people to go down at the start of the season, so it is no surprise to see them in the bottom two after four matches. But one wonders what odds you would have got on Durham propping up the Division One table at this stage.

Were it not for the evergreen Alan Richardson (24 championship wickets at 15.12 runs apiece), there is every chance the Pears would currently be occupying ninth place. Richard Jones has made an encouraging start to the season with the ball, but has been expensive, Aneesh Kapil - an 18-year-old seamer - is still finding his feet and David Lucas is yet to repay the faith shown in him since being handed a three-year contract by Worcestershire's director of cricket, Steve Rhodes.

The batsmen have had even less to shout about, though that's not surprising given the penchant for groundsmen to prepare so-called result wickets in the championship. Just three Worcestershire batters have made half-centuries in four-day cricket this term - Moeen Ali, Michael Klinger, Daryl Mitchell. Notwithstanding this, all three are averaging less than thirty.

If selected, Surrey's George Edwards will be making his championship debut. For Worcestershire, Alan Richardson, with 994, is approaching one thousand first-class career runs. Amazing, when you think he made his debut in 1995.

Ahead of next week's first Test, at Lord's, Kevin Pietersen swaps the IPL for a token appearance for Surrey, which will probably mean Jason Roy standing down from the side that drew with Worcestershire a few weeks ago. With Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker on England Lions duty, George Edwards and Tim Linley have been drafted into Surrey's 13-man squad.

The weather forecast, ah the weather forecast, suggests there will only be the equivalent of two and a half days play at New Road. With the pitch likely to start damp, that's still enough to obtain a positive outcome. Worcestershire are one of the sides teams in Division One need to cash in against, plus the visitors' have plenty of batting experience. Surrey win. 

D Mitchell (capt), M Klinger, V Solanki, M Ali, J Cameron, M Pardoe, A Kapil, B Scott (wk), R Jones, D Lucas and A Richardson.

Rob Bailey and Peter Willey.

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