Sussex v Surrey T20

I like Mrs Doyle's summary - we were never out of it but never looked like winning. That was the evening in a nutshell.

Bruce Talbot called Arafat's batting heroics an "unlikely cameo". He has a short mermory for anyone who remembers Arafat winning a T20 game for Kent with the bat against Sussex at Hove in 2008 will not have been surprised. That night six years ago he came in at three and biffed the Sussex bowlers out of the park in making forty-something. That win took Kent through to the quarter-finals and Kent then batted him at three as a pinch-hitter all the way through to the final. He never quite repeated the success, but he can definitely 'hit a long ball' on his day.

Four thoughts/observations before I set off for Lord's and the double-header.

1. It never should have been that hard in the final over because the target should only have been 10 - to get fined six runs for slow over rate in the Surrey innings when 40 per cent of the overs were bowled by spinners was inexcusably careless. Umpires have apparently been told to be much stricter on over rate this season and Joyce needs to get a grip of this. We were lucky Dernbach was bowling the last over. If you need 16 from six balls, he's definitely the man you want bowling at you!

2. Agree with jonboy that the batting looks short of a D Smith/Styris type biffer. In addition to G Smith and Azhar, Surrey in the last week brough in Kevin O'Brien and Robin Peterson. Most teams now have two T20 overseas specialists and it is disappointing Sussex has not made a similar move. Of course, Sussex can point out that despite Surrey's four imports, they still lost. But I get the impression that the general uselessness of Sussex's two overseas players last year has been used as a reason not to recruit a batsman who can hit it out of the ground for this year's competition - and I fear that may prove a costly mistake in what is going to be a very competitive group.

3. Zaidi has guts, you have to give him that. I feel sorry for him because I think the expectations placed upon him by Robinson and Joyce have been totally unreasonable. We were told : (a) he replaces Panesar as the main spinner and (b) he is a top six batsman. Now it seems he's expected to open the bowling in T20 as well. To demand all this from a cricketer who this time last year was plying his trade for Accrington in the Lancy League is grossly unfair. Yet he's up for it and remains confident and cheerful, as far as I can see. Good luck to him; he should play again today in what will be a big game for him (his first appearance at Lord's, I'd guess). But for heaven's sake, he has to bat below Brown and Arafat because he's a walking wicket at the moment.

4. Lewis in for Liddle today? It will be fascinating to see how Middx cope with playing two games back-to-back in one afternoon. By the time they take on Sussex, will they be tuned up and surging with confidence from defeating Essex - or will they be knackered and dispirited by defeat? Hopefully the latter!

Interesting Flash, that the crowd seemed muted, that's definitely the feeling I've had on these boards recently, old and new.