I took the opportunity to join quite a few people at the Kia Oval for the opening day of the County Championship as I caught the evening session of the day’s play against Warwickshire. Ian Bell had elected to put Surrey into bat, and the result was the hosts finishing on 327 for 3 in 96 overs. Given the presence of a number of the media’s finest, including Charles Colvile, George Dobell, John Etheridge and Dean Wilson (the last three came very close to me as I left the ground this evening) you won’t need a match report. The bare bones are that Mark Stoneman made a debut to remember with 165 runs before tiredness did for him:
Sangakkara played very sedately. He announced himself to the post-tea crowd with a magnificent drive, but then played an anchor role, never looking particularly ill at ease, and stayed to the close on 47 not out.
I took a load of pictures, as always, and after using my favourite photo software, here are some of the results. Hope you enjoy them (Click on each for the full size version).
Hope the people going tomorrow enjoy themselves. They could be in for a very good day.
Being Outside Cricket 
I was there till around 5pm, took my two boys (11 and 9). They had a really good day, able to play on the outfield at lunch and tea – the Curran brothers came out and played near us with a couple of younger boys at lunch, which was a really nice touch.
We saw some very solid batting, with Stoneman obviously the pick – as he eased into his innings he seemed able to pick off runs at will, especially playing late through a vacant third man, but with orthodox shots all round the wicket. Burns batted well until nicking off, but I’m a little worried by his very crouched stance. It reminded me of Morgan before he had his troubles around WC time, with a few too many moving parts.
Bell has admitted his toss decision was daft; I thought his field placing for Patel against Stoneman and Borthwick in the afternoon was dreadful though.
At lunch I bought Jack Russell’s Art of Cricket (looks great), got it signed and had a nice chat with him. He was exceptionally pleasant. Having given my boys a potted history of why he’s both the best and nuttiest keeper of the last 30 years before meeting him, being told afterwards “He didn’t seem bonkers at all” was brilliant!
On a beautiful sunny day, with a good crowd and some quality cricket – a Sanga cover drive makes the heart sing – it was almost possible to believe that there’s little wrong with the game…
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On the other hand… I spent both lunch and tea throwing catches at the rope so my boys could practise palming it back and relay catches as if they were on the boundary in the IPL… Not something you see very often in the CC!
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All I’ll say is that I’m massively jealous of you all 🙂
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Even if it is the Slurry Scum 🙂
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Quick summary of the amount of CC coverage in the non-paywall newspapers:
1) Guardian – one report mostly focused on Lancs/Essex with brief summaries of other games at the end.
2) The DM – one article entitled ‘CC round-up’.
3) The DT – one article mostly focused on Lancs/Essex and more interested in Hameed than the game itself. (Like all these, that’s based on their on-line edition – I’m curious if the print edition is the same).
In short, it’s almost invisible in the papers. It also feels like a downgrading from last year (although I’m not 100% sure). It is also a busy sporting Saturday, especially with the Masters so it’s possible there might be more at other times.
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Also nothing in the Mirror despite the presence of Dean Wilson at the ground.
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Great gig if you can get it, eh?
Doesn’t look like there is anything online at The Sun either.
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Lovely pictures. Thanks for sharing.
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I’m jealous of you guys too. I am currently in temperatures of 36+ degrees and high humidity near Mumbai and would rather be back in the spring warmth watching some cricket than nigh keeping inside most of the day to avoid the heat and only venturing out in the morning and evening apart from a couple of meetings I had to attend over the last few days.
I hope all is well and that I can get to head to the Oval in the next match that they have there.
ATB
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