Beckenham, 22 June: Surrey (141-3) beat Kent (140-8) by 7 wickets
Despite being without a number of key players, including Scott Newman, who was serving a one-match suspension following an incident in training the previous day, the Surrey Lions stated their intentions for this season’s Twenty20 Cup by kicking off with an emphatic seven-wicket win over the Kent Spitfires. When Batty and Clarke saw the visitors home with an unbeaten fourth wicket partnership of 29 the shell-shocked hosts still had four overs to bowl. That Kent, who won the toss, set a target of 141 had much to do with Van Jaarveld’s 44-ball 51. The departure of the Kolpak signing, caught behind off Murtagh, heralded the arrival of Cook who rounded off the Spitfires’ effort by bludgeoning 20 off twelve deliveries. But it soon became a case of too little too late when James Benning and Alistair Brown saw their side to 68 before being parted. Kemp had Brown caught at long off then disposed of Thornely first ball, but the South Africa all-rounder proved expensive, which, having earlier struggled for 16 deliveries to make ten runs, did little to endear him to the partisan crowd of 7,000. By way of contrast Benning, hitting uninhibitedly, needed just thirty balls to post his first half-century in Twenty20 cricket, which included two sixes, the first of which landed in the Kent committee’s marquee.

Lord’s, 23 June: Surrey (200-3) beat Middlesex (177) by 23 runs
Last Thursday, not even a pyrotechnic innings from Owais Shah, who struck five sixes on course to recording the highest individual score against Surrey in Twenty20 cricket, could cause the Lions to loose their cool on a sultry evening in Central London. With his side needing a challenging 201 to win, the 26-year-old, who made 78 off just 44 balls, seemed to be carrying the Middlesex Crusaders to victory when Tim Murtagh returned to bowl the third of his four overs. A wonderful catch at long-on by Brown soon accounted for Shah, whose wicket became the first of nine to fall in the space of five overs for 29 runs. When the pandemonium was over Murtagh had taken 6-24 – the best ever figures in the brief history of the Twenty20 Cup. His fifth and sixth scalps will live long in the memories of the 25,000 who witnessed them. Weekes, who made a fateful miss when Surrey batted by dropping Brown on 32, departed to a stinging return catch and Scott was brilliantly caught by Harbhajan Singh running back from mid-wicket to take the chance over his shoulder. The visitors were beside themselves with joy and for good reason. But the win, which was comfortable in the end, owed much to Thornely and Clarke’s unbeaten stand of 75 in 21 minutes earlier in the piece.

Brit Oval, 25 June: Hampshire (119-7) beat Surrey (118) by 3 wickets
Last Saturday was a day of firsts. Surrey’s first match in front of the new OCS Stand ended with the Lions’ first ever group stage defeat in the Twenty20 Cup. But the contest could well have become the shortest ever – which would have been of immense disappointment to the 12,000-strong crowd – had it not been for Rikki Clarke’s first half-century in Twenty20 cricket. After winning the toss, the hosts’ innings began horrendously when Logan and Bruce reduced them to 26-5 inside four overs. But other than Newman, Surrey’s top order batsmen only had themselves to blame. The luck was with Clarke, though. He was dropped on nine and, infuriatingly for Logan, the next ball was despatched straight down the ground for six. Clarke went on to make 52 off 44 deliveries, which looked likely to earn him the man of the match award when Hampshire then attempted to commit hari-kari. But the arrival at the crease in the tenth over of Shaun Udal brought a sense of perspective to proceedings. In partnership with Adams the Hawks’ stand-in skipper put on an unbeaten 53 for the eighth wicket. Their alliance included just five boundaries, which proves that ones and twos are equally as important, and the visitors eventually chased down Surrey’s lowest ever total in the Twenty20 Cup with thirteen deliveries to spare.

Brit Oval, 28 June: Surrey (180-7) beat Middlesex (78-4) by 22 runs (D/L method)
Before the arrival of Tuesday night’s thunderstorms Rikki Clarke followed up his 28-ball 46 with three wickets in an over to thwart Middlesex for the second time in the space of a week. The loss of nine overs to the elements meant that Surrey were awarded their 22-run victory under the Duckworth-Lewis system. The victory returned the Lions to the top of their Twenty20 group table on run rate. After winning the toss and showing more application with the bat than they displayed against Hampshire in the previous match, Surrey’s upper order provided Tim Murtagh, destroyer of Middlesex with the ball in the corresponding fixture at Lord’s last week, with the ideal platform to drive a steak through the Crusaders’ hearts once again. The 23-year-old all-rounder pillaged 22 runs off the final over of the hosts’ innings, bowled by Betts, which went 6-4-4-2-2-4. That hoisted the Lions’ total up to 180-7, which would have been a big ask even if the light was not starting to become a factor. Undaunted, Middlesex set off positively and by the fifth over of their reply had put on 41 for the loss of Shah, who was caught on the square leg boundary off the bowling of, you guessed it, Murtagh. But then Clarke accounted for Styris with his first ball, thanks to a brilliant catch by Sampson running round from third man, as well as Smith and Joyce to complete his opening over, which was also a maiden. When the threat of torrential rain eventually became reality, the visitors had only managed 78-4 versus a par score, at that stage, of 100.

Hove, 29 June: Surrey (116-5) beat Sussex (139-6) by 5 wickets (D/L method)
Should Azhar Mahmood ever do Karaoake it seems a fair bet that he would attempt to sing Phil Collins’s ‘Against All Odds’. In last year’s Twenty20 Cup semi-final the Pakistan all-rounder delivered a dramatic final over to keep Surrey’s unbeaten run in the competition alive. On Wednesday night, at Hove, with 14 runs needed off three balls, he clubbed a six and two fours to hand the Lions a similarly improbable victory. Rain meant that the Duckworth-Lewis ready reckoners were out again. When the details of Sussex’s innings were entered into the program, out came a target of 114 off thirteen overs. As long as Brown was at the crease, the momentum was with Surrey. The 35-year-old broke a window in one of the flats on the eastern side of the ground on his way to a 28-ball half-century. But after he was cleaned up by Wright’s off-stump yorker the visitors looked in danger of losing their way when three further wickets, two of them run outs involving their eventual saviour, fell in the space of five minutes. When Sussex batted, Ward, who rode his luck, and Prior put on 42 for the first wicket before Mahmood accounted for the former Surrey opener. But there was almost no stopping Matt Prior, who went on to record his second fifty in this summer’s Twenty20 Cup. Goodwin mastered spin better than anyone on the night, but once again the Lions showed that they never feel a target is beyond them in this code of the game. Afterwards, Alistair Brown said: “We never believe we’re beaten and the one time we were beaten this season we had Hampshire 66-7 in a game we had no right to finish second in. As long as you are positive and you’ve got wickets in hand, the luck goes with you. You’ve got to be positive and not be afraid and that’s what we did. You could say we were lucky to come out winners today, but I thought we played some good cricket in parts. Azhar’s helped us out a few times in the past when we’ve needed him and today was no different.”

Brit Oval, 1 July: Surrey (167-6) beat Kent (144-8) by 23 runs
Last Friday evening the biggest crowd for a county match at the Oval in nearly fifty years, 20,041 to be precise, witnessed Surrey complete a satisfying Twenty20 double over Kent. By lunchtime the box office at the Brit Oval had no more tickets to sell, which was all the more remarkable given that there was little riding on the outcome of the contest. Even if the Spitfires were to taste victory for the first time in this summer’s Twenty20 Cup it was mathematically impossible for them to reach the last eight, while a win for the Lions would still not have secured a quarter-final place on 18 July. When rain called a halt to proceedings after four overs it looked as if that was all the capacity crowd was going to get. But when play resumed each subsequent shower was merely dismissed as an irrelevance. Of far greater concern was the failing light, which was extremely poor in the middle phase of Kent’s run-chase and could not have done the visitors any favours as they sought to respond to Surrey’s stirring 167-6 in fifteen overs. Walker and Hall guided the Spitfires to 47 without loss in five overs, but then Matt Walker tried to run the first ball of the sixth down to third man and was bowled by Nayan Doshi. The slow left-armer suffered at the hands of Carberry, who clubbed 18 runs off the five remaining deliveries of the sixth over; yet it was Doshi who went on to account for the cream of Kent’s batting. His next victim was Key, who holed out to long-off, then Stevens, whom he trapped lbw attempting a pull-sweep and, finally, van Jaarsveld, who was caught by Brown running in from long-on. That left the Spitfires needing 45 off three overs with four wickets in hand. They managed just two more boundaries as their dash for the line petered out. Earlier, Alistair Brown celebrated winning the toss by announcing himself with a six in each of the first two overs. After he went, bowled leg stump, and Batty and Benning departed in successive overs, it was left to the Lions’ hero of Hove, Azhar Mahmood and then Scott Newman to compile a daunting total. Newman, who was dropped on the straight boundary off Kemp when he had made just 10, went on to record his first half-century in the Twenty20 Cup for more than two years. The penultimate over of Surrey’s innings, bowled by Simon Cook, went for 25 and included successive sixes, the first straight down the ground and the second on-driven, from the blade of Newman.

Chelmsford, 5 July: Essex (71-3) beat Surrey (70-2) by 1 run
On Tuesday, with the match not starting until 9.40pm, and amid steady rain, Essex just got the better of Surrey under lights at Chelmsford. It may have provided the 3,000-strong crowd with some belated entertainment, but did little else other than keep alive the Eagles' frail hopes of making it through to the knockout stages of this summer's Twenty20 Cup. Stuart Kerrison and his groundstaff worked tirelessly to remove as much water as possible from the playing surface, but it was highly debatable whether they had succeeded in their task when the cut off time for staging the minimum five-overs-per-side contest arrived. Essex's captain Ronnie Irani, ably abetted by James Middlebrook scored 58 off the first 21 balls, Middlebrook hitting two sixes and two fours and Irani cracking a six and five fours. Both got out to Azhar Mahmood, who appeared to have turned things round for the Lions when he came to bat. With Antonio Palladino accounting for Benning and Brown in the second over of the Surrey innings for the cost of just three runs, Mahmood struck three sixes in four balls off Kaneria. But an ask of 16 off the final over proved to be just beyond the visitors. Afterwards, the Lions' skipper Alistair Brown made no attempt to hide his irritation at the decision to play. He said: "I think it was an embarrassing decision to play five overs. Two of the best spinners in the world couldn't bowl. I needed Phil Taylor and 'One dart' Manley to bowl for me today because darts was all that was needed there. It was exciting but I've played in that situation before, exactly the same - wet outfield not particularly safe - and it was rained off. I would be saying exactly the same if we had won. I didn't think it was fit. It's not sour grapes because we have qualified anyway. Twenty20 is a great competition, don't get me wrong, but five overs on a wet outfield when it's raining is farcical."

Brit Oval, 6 July: Sussex (148-7) beat Surrey (144-8) by 3 wickets
When the dust settled on Wednesday night's three-wicket loss to the Sussex Sharks, which was engineered by Surrey old boy Ian Ward, who struck a 29-ball half-century that included three sixes, the Brit Oval outfit amazingly found themselves top of their Twenty20 Cup group yet again. But the guarantee of a home tie in the quarter-finals on 18 July meant that the Lions' second successive defeat in the competition was not the thing upper most in coach Steve Rixon's mind when he spoke to Oval World. With no Hollioake, who is now retired, and the likes of Butcher, Ormond and Ramprakash missing due to injury, many of Surrey's leading lights in last year's Twenty20 Cup have been missing this time round. But, according to Rixon, that has simply meant that others have had to put their hands up. He said: "It's great that Tim Murtagh's come to the party. We're obviously relying heavily on Azhar Mahmood at the moment, he stands alone in this game, and Nayan Doshi's still maintaining his strength in the competition. But generally I think the blokes are pretty relaxed with their game, enjoying it and are pretty confident in any situation. Like in the game against Hampshire when we got bowled out for nothing and had them 66-7. That's just believing in yourself and that belief is still here." But Rixon agreed that a feature of Surrey's cricket this summer, in all competitions, has been the vast improvement in the fielding. Rixon said: "The difference in our game has been in the field. Our catching has been better, albeit that it wasn't bad last year, and our ground fielding has been outstanding. We've probably done a little more work on it in the lead up, because we know how important it is and the edge comes from that. The occasional run out or the great catch along the way. Everyone's doing their bit and even our worst fielders are more than capable in this game. When we drop one they stand out, whereas last year the one that was caught was the one that was standing out." Rixon was also keen to stress the contribution of both his overseas players. He said: "From the moment Harbhajan got here he has been appreciative of us waiting for him and giving him an opportunity to express himself with Surrey. He loves the area and he loves being with the boys. Unfortunately we've only got him for one more championship match, but if the Zimbabwe tour doesn't go ahead, he's very keen to come back." Rixon added: "Azhar has so many strengths to his bow. Whether it be in the field, with the bat in a crisis situation, like the one down at Hove, or with the ball, it gives you a hell of a chance if you've got people like that in your side. But it's time for others to stand up and do a bit more. We need to get more out of our opening combination with the bat. The likes of Ramprakash coming back into the fold is going to stabilise that and I think Rikki Clarke has got a bigger part to play. If you look at the bigger picture there's plenty to look forward to and we're still winning."

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