Surrey clinch NCL
Monday, September 15 2003
Surrey went partway towards softening the blow of losing the County Championship today, as victory over defending champions Glamorgan saw them lift the NCL title.
Glamorgan vs. Surrey
It was ultimately a low scoring game, but the result went the way of Surrey thanks to some fine batting from England discards Mark Ramprakash and Adam Hollioake, and a disciplined bowling spell from England new-boy Rikki Clarke.
On winning the toss, Surrey elected to bat, but they soon lost both openers with only 31 on the board.
As tourists Graeme Thorpe and Clarke also fell cheaply, the score was only 61-4 when Hollioake joined Ramprakash for the key stand in the match. The pair added 76 in three quarters of an hour before Robert Croft bowled Hollioake for 51 in just 52 balls including 5 fours and 2 sixes.
After that, the innings fell away badly, and only an Ian Salisbury cameo of 19 from 18 balls helped the side post 198-9 as Adrian Dale did an effective job against the lower order.
Jimmy Maher went off like a train, smashing 21 from 17 balls, but his wicket was the first of 2 in consecutive balls, and the score was 29-2. A solid knock from Michael Powell steadied the ship though, and the side got 100-3 at one point before Tim Murtagh inspired a collapse to first 114-6 and then 130-7, and the game looked up.
Croft and Michael Kasprowicz battled away, and both made 32-ball 20's, but it was not to be enough, and Clarke capped a fine spell by bowling last man David Harrison to end the game.
SURREY 198-9 (Ramprakash 53, Hollioake 51, Dale 4-35, Kasprowicz 2-25)
GLAMORGAN 190 (Powell 40, Murtagh 3-44, Clarke 2-19, Hollioake 2-29)
Leicestershire vs. Kent
A below-par Leicestershire effort saw them dismissed for just 98 in a heavy defeat.
For once it was Muttiah Muralitharan who did the damage for Kent, as Amjad Khan tore into the top order in a spell that saw 4 wickets go down for just 9 runs, then veteran Mark Ealham picked up 4 of his own, including top-scorer Paul Nixon for 32. As a testimony to the accuracy of the Kent attack, 6 players were bowled, and 2 trapped LBW.
It was never a big enough target, and although they were reduced to 39-2, Andrew Symonds smashed an unbeaten 45 fromonly 40 balls, 34 of which came in boundaries, as he dominated the unbroken 3rd wicket stand of 62 with Robert Key.
LEICESTERSHIRE 98 (Ealham 4-19, Khan 4-26)
KENT 101-2 (Symonds 45*, Key 44*)
Posted by Marc
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