Surrey vs Sussex T20 – The Final Over of the Day

Ball One – In with the In Crowd

A quick bike across the river and I’m at The Oval amongst what looks every bit as big a crowd as that I left behind at Lord’s – with, it has to be said, almost everyone avidly watching the cricket, picnic spots tricky to locate round here. The Oval and Lord’s always sound different – Lord’s has a hum, The Oval more a rumble – and there are more supporters barracking for the visitors (it’s not far up the M23 after all), which provides a different dynamic. The crowd is younger, more female and more diverse too – though there’s still plenty to be done to get the full rainbow of South London’s cavalcade of humanity through the gates.

Ball Two – Nostalgia – but not as I know it

“Shall we go and see the last 20 overs?” My dad would say that back in the 70s and I’d jump in the car and we’d go to Bootle or Northern (sometimes Sefton Park), arriving at six o’clock or so, when the umpires would call the last hour in which 20 sets were to be bowled. The Liverpool Competition played time matches, so the batting side could shut up shop and play for the draw, but they seldom did. Safe to say, it was rather less frenetic, less loud and less colourful than the scene under lights in Kennington.

Ball Three – Get Ctrl C Ctrl V ready for Foakes and Curran

A skier and Phil Salt goes, caught Foakes, bowled Curran. Okay, it was Tom Curran rather than Sam (who is playing and made another handy score at Number 3) but it’s still an entry that could have appeared today on the scorecard five miles north of here. I wouldn’t be surprised if it does when England finish their Ashes campaign at this ground next month.

Ball Four – Old stagers refuse to be upstaged

Surrey’s spin twins, Imran Tahir and Gareth Batty, have a combined age of 82, both having passed 40. Looking around, that makes them older than a good 75% of the crowd, I’d venture. Cricket, even in this madcap mayhem format – I’ve just all but lost both eyebrows when the flamethrowers saluted Jordan Clark’s caught and bowled – still has room for a couple of very old pros like them.

Sussex arrive for the rumble

Ball Five – When You’re A Shark…

I’ve always been a little disappointed that no T20 team chose “Jets” for a name. Sussex are, of course, “Sharks”, a name that has a bit of geographical heft and both alliteration and assonance when combined with Sussex. I can’t help thinking that Stephen Sondheim would rather appreciate that, having never knowingly turned down the opportunity for an internal rhyme himself. A little West Side Story would improve the T20 playlist no end too.

Ball Six – Sharks sink as the run rate climbs

At the halfway point, the Sharks had eight wickets in hand with the run rate in single figures. They had to be favourites – if you looked at the numbers. But the Surrey bowlers, despite an indifferent campaign, could call upon plenty of bells and whistles, and the visiting batsmen could barely time one off the square. Up climbed the asking rate, up went the top edges and on into hands, and up went the wickets column. “One big over” the batsmen would be telling themselves, but it never came and the points stayed in the Metropolis.