Sloppy Surrey Superstars pay the penalty for complacency

Warwickshire (314-7) beat Surrey (313-6) by 3 wickets with 21 balls to spare

Credit: Warwickshire CCC

Surrey’s team of batting superstars contrived to lose this game at Kent’s Beckenham ground by 3 wickets to Warwickshire, a team short on international caps but with an abundance of hard-working and often unsung heroes. It could and should have been a different result.

Exiled yet again from their own county ground on a day when the Oval would have been available, Surrey made a fantastic start to this game, winning the toss and batting on a chilly, breezy early May morning. Bryony Smith and Danni Wyatt-Hodge thrashed 59 runs from the first six overs, plundering the bowling of Issy Wong and Katie George with flamboyant flashes of brilliance. Many were thinking, could this be the day we see 360 runs, even 400 runs in a women’s 50 over game? 

Wyatt-Hodge, her eyes gleefully locked onto another wide one from Wong in the 7th over, inexplicably launched it straight into Perrin’s hands at point. She was beside herself, as it was one of those days when a huge century seemed a distinct possibility for an opening batter seeing the ball this well. Only the introduction of Em Arlott in the 8th over, combined with Wong re-finding her elusive bowling mojo stemmed the flow of runs, to such an extent that Surrey amazingly managed to accumulate only 52 runs from the next 12 overs. 

Capsey batted fluently for nearly half an hour, hitting three fours and a six, before getting a thick inside edge to deflect Arlott’s delivery into her own stumps. It was the combination of Smith and Sophia Dunkley then who accumulated at a run a ball for the next hour or so, Smith the aggressor, Dunkley slightly more cautious. Smith was clearly struggling with some sort of injury, which may have contributed to her dismissal in the 28th over, giving another catch to Perrin at point, this time from the bowling of Bethan Ellis.

It was at this point that one expected Surrey to push on towards a total of 340-350. Dunkley was well set, Davidson-Richards was joining her and Paige Scholfield still to come, yet Surrey seemed somehow stuck, conservatively nurdling five an over from the bowling of Hannah Baker, Emily Arlott and Bethan Ellis. Not losing wickets, but not taking many risks. Davidson-Richards, the hero for South East Stars on this ground back in September, looked a shadow of that player as she worked almost exclusively in singles and dot balls for three-quarters of an hour. When Scholfield came in, she showed more urgency, but it was urgency that had been needed for a while and one sensed that Dunkley’s caution was possibly more to do with personal milestones than the needs of the team. A score of 330 or more would surely put the game beyond Warwickshire. Dunkley’s run rate did increase in the final five overs and she reached three figures from the penultimate ball, but Surrey’s final total of 313 did feel like less than it should have been.

Warwickshire’s reply began poorly. Promising youngster Meg Austin opened with Abbie Freeborn. Austin quickly impressed with a well struck straight drive for four, but soon after was dismissed, her lofted drive failing to rise above the hands of mid-on. She would be followed back to the pavilion in the course of the next four overs by Freeborn and George, dismissed in virtually identical fashion to Austin. It left Warwickshire floundering on 59 for 3, still another 255 runs away from victory.

What followed were the three crucial contributions that got Warwickshire over the line, none of them scoring as many as Smith or Dunkley, but combined Perrin, Wraith and Ellis scored more than those two combined at a better strike rate, and that is what won the game for Warwickshire.

Davina Perrin is a star in the making. The 18 year old, now extraordinarily playing her fifth season of top level cricket, under-performed in the 50 over game last season, but has already shown a leap in progress this year. Her innings was fully of class: a 360 degree game with power, finesse and subtlety. She was also involved in the oddest incident of the game, when Dani Gregory threw the ball to the keeper from cover point and Perrin ducked down in case the keeper missed it. It was the sort of fielding drill one sees played out constantly throughout the game at every level. Umpire Simon Widdup did not see it that way, and after consultation with Surendiran Shanmugam at square leg, called over Bryony Smith and awarded five penalty runs to Warwickshire. It was a very odd incident and Dani Gregory was clearly upset and bewildered by it. 

Under the Laws of the game (Law 42.3.1), this was a level 2 offence (throwing the ball at a player, umpire or another person in an inappropriate and dangerous manner) and as well as the penalty runs, Bryony Smith will have been warned that any level 1 offence her team committed from that time onwards would also result in five penalty runs. After the game, the umpires will have reported the incident to the Executive Committee of Surrey and the ECB. However, virtually nobody watching the match saw anything wrong with it, including Davina Perrin, whose evasive action was unnecessary because the ball was not going near her. A most rare and peculiar incident. In my opinion, Dani Gregory and Surrey were very unfortunate to be penalised in this way. And as a spectator, I want and expect to see fielders acting in a lively way and challenging the batters with assertive and competitive play.

So Perrin, Wraith and the most unsung of all unsung heroes, Bethan Ellis saw Warwickshire home in the 47th over with calm, assured and skilful batting to which Surrey’s bowlers had no answer. Poor Alice Davidson-Richards had an awful day, sending down a series of wides and at one point a two bounce half-tracker which strayed wide off the pitch for a very embarrassing no-ball. I believe (and hope for ADR’s sake) that the watching Charlotte Edwards may have gone home by then. 

It was the highest successful run chase in the history of English domestic women’s cricket, and Warwickshire did it with 21 balls to spare.

Surrey, much vaunted and tipped for greatness before the season began, have now lost three of their four games and have allowed opposition to chase down huge scores at Beckenham twice. I’m sure that Kent fans and players can enjoy a wry smile at this, having lost out to Surrey in applying for Tier One and then finding out that Surrey couldn’t source a ground of their own so would be hiring Kent’s spare ground.

As for Warwickshire, they have shown once again that in English domestic cricket a team of unheralded, hard working local heroes will always triumph over a team of individuals.