Yesterday, stand-in skipper Ian Blackwell set Somerset on the way to their eighth National League victory in a row against Surrey, thus keeping alive the Sabres’ faint hopes of promotion whilst at the same time putting paid to any chance the Lions had of sneaking into the picture. Blackwell’s 88 off 53 balls, which included seven fours and six sixes, turned round the visitors’ 89 for three in the nineteenth over in reply to their hosts’ 237 to such an extent that the visitors coasted home with five wickets and 31 balls to spare.

In alliance with James Hildreth - who made a 63-ball half-century before he finished unbowed on 75 and wrapped the contest up with a straight six - the 27-year-old all-rounder put on 120 in sixteen overs for the fourth-wicket. Blackwell was eventually out slog-sweeping Mark Ramprakash to the mid-wicket boundary. But by that time the horse had already bolted with his side requiring a mere 29 off the last ten.

Earlier, James Benning and Jonathan Batty had given the Lions an 85-run platform on which to build a big innings. Both went past 500 runs for the season in List A cricket before Batty was run out at the non-striker’s end in the fifteenth over for 41 off exactly the same number of deliveries. That Surrey failed to get a total in excess of 250 was due to the strange-hold imposed by the spin of Blackwell, who found a useful ally in Arul Suppiah.

In the space of fifteen deliveries Suppiah’s teasing slow left-armers accounted for Benning, who top-scored for the home side with 65 off 88 balls, Ramprakash and Brown. The Exeter University student - who, incidentally, turns twenty-two on Tuesday - had Benning advancing injudiciously to a wide ball, Mark Ramprakash playing across to line to one that turned viciously and Alistair Brown caught and bowled off one that held up in the pitch.

Stewart Walters, showing great maturity for one so young, then held things together at one end while Mark Butcher, Azhar Mahmood and Ian Salisbury punished anything loose, of which there was precious little other than when Wesley Durston erred in length and Carl Langeveldt returned for his second spell. By that time, however, with the tennis ball bounce no longer in evidence run-making had become an arduous occupation.

Only Butcher, making his first one-day appearance of the season (and only his fourth in two seasons), looked at home against the spinners, who restricted him to three boundaries in a responsible innings of 46 off 65 balls, which included a swept six off Durston in the 25th over.

With the ball, as they had done with the bat, Surrey made a good start, accounting for Matthew Wood, who was well caught low and to the left of Brown at second slip off Azhar, in the first over. After nine overs the Sabres had only advanced to 30 for one. But the introduction of Jade Dernbach coincided with the cutting loose of John Francis and Suppiah. The 19-year-old’s first over went for twelve, but then he settled into a good rhythm only to be yanked out of the attack to make way for the spinners.

When Nayan Doshi accounted for Suppiah, who was caught at long-off in his first over, the switch appeared to be justified. But the result was it brought Blackwell to the crease and from that moment on the course of the game altered dramatically.

The burly left-hander announced himself by on-driving Doshi into the Bedser Stand off the last ball of the 21st over and sweeping the first delivery he received in the next, from Salisbury, for another maximum. Four overs later, after switching ends, Doshi was lapped for another six by Blackwell, who lifted Azhar over the straight mid-wicket boundary to go to his half-century in just 26 deliveries at the end of the 27th over.

The Lions simply had no answer to Ian Blackwell who has now made over 705 runs in one-day cricket this summer at an average of 50.35, and at a rate of 1.4 runs per ball received. As Surrey’s Jonathan Batty said afterwards: “He played magnificently. We know how he plays. We felt we were in with a chance with the way he played, but he just kept hitting the ball out of the park. That’s why he has played international cricket - because of his ability to do that. He appears to be the forgotten man at the moment, but there aren’t too many around who can strike the ball as cleanly as that.”

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