Surrey 70 for 4 trail Lancashire 274 (Salt 56, Clark 4-47, Abbott 4-71) by 204 runs
The BBC’s radio coverage from The Oval started with birdsong. After the first eight rounds of the LV= Insurance County Championship season were played with the Dukes ball, Sunday heralded the arrival of the Kookaburra.
The idea behind its introduction for these two rounds was simple: England’s Test team have struggled to take wickets away from home, particularly in Australia. The use of a Kookaburra ball in the Championship was mooted by Andrew Strauss’ High Performance Review last summer, with the ambition of promoting English spinners, and seamers with “extreme skill”.
“The Dukes ball has a reputation for more movement for more overs, compared to the Kookaburra ball which is used in many other countries,” the review said. “This extra movement may also limit the need for extreme skill development of seam bowlers, but also limit opportunities for spinners due to the success of seamers domestically.”
The identity of the bowlers who took wickets on the opening day of Surrey’s fixture against Lancashire did not necessarily square with the review’s ambitions. Of the 14 wickets to fall – which would doubtless have been more with a more pronounced seam on the ball – only three were taken by bowlers under the age of 30: one each for Sam Curran, returning to first-class cricket after an absence of almost a year, Tom Lawes and Jack Blatherwick.
There were only three overs of spin, from which Will Jacks conceded 25 runs. “Take him off!” shouted a Surrey supporter in the JM Finn Stand. “Leave him on!” replied a travelling Lancashire fan. But Jacks will doubtless play a role in the second innings, as will Jack Morley – Lancashire’s 22-year-old left-arm spinner, preferred to Tom Hartley to play his first Championship game of the season.
The best bowler on show was the one most familiar with the red Kookaburra. Sean Abbott has taken nearly 200 Sheffield Shield wickets for New South Wales and is a highly skilled, international-quality seamer; he removed four of the top six as Surrey, the only team across the country to bowl on winning the toss, bowled Lancashire out for 274 on a green-tinged Oval…..
