Former England skipper Alex Stewart praises Suffolk’s ‘outstanding’ fielding in NCCA Showcase fixture with Surrey at Woolpit Cricket Club
Alec Stewart has praised Suffolk’s ‘outstanding’ fielding in Sunday’s NCCA Showcase fixture.
The former England captain, who is now Surrey’s director of cricket, was in charge of the first-class side for their visit to face Suffolk at Woolpit CC.
Surrey won the match by 101 runs on Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) after reducing Suffolk to 45-6 off 18 overs in their reply before rain brought a premature end to proceedings.
And Stewart was very complimentary about the standard of Suffolk’s fielding as the National Counties side restricted their opponents to 216-9 in their 50 overs.
“I thought they were outstanding,” he said.
“Their intensity in the field was really good. They gave us no easy runs at all – very good in the inner circle and dived and made good ground out on the boundary edge so they should be very proud of their fielding performance.”
Stewart also had praise for Suffolk’s spinners, especially Jack Beaumont and Tom Harper, who took two wickets apiece.
He said: “I thought their spinners, in particular, were outstanding – the left arm spinner upfront (Beaumont) and the off spinner (Harper) bowled exceptionally well.
“They worked out the pitch – they worked out the conditions and the pace of the surface and bowled accordingly.
“I think they would have been happy to restrict us to what we did. They may have wanted to keep us to 180 after the start they had, but they should be very pleased with the first half of their game.”
Surrey, who included England international bowler Reece Topley, who was raised in Polstead near Hadleigh and attended the Royal Hospital School in Ipswich, for his first match after suffering a dislocated shoulder, won the toss and, not surprisingly, opted to bat.
On a slow and low wicket, Surrey took time to adapt to the conditions and were reduced to 67-4 off 18 overs, before Josh Blake took centre stage.
The left-hander scored a run-a-ball unbeaten 96 to steer Surrey towards a competitive total, receiving good support from Adam Thomas in a stand of 42 for the fifth wicket.
Jack Beaumont (10-2-30-2) and Tom Harper (10-1-26-2) were the pick of the bowlers for Suffolk, whose ground fielding was excellent throughout.
Suffolk had good reason to feel pleased with their efforts bearing in mind a year ago Kent Spitfires racked up 431-7 on the same ground.
The absence through injury of four of Suffolk’s regular top-six in white-ball cricket – Darren Batch, George Rhodes, Ben Claydon and Darren Ironside – meant it was going to be a tough task for Suffolk’s batting unit.
Jacob Marston was promoted to open the innings for the first time with Beaumont, with both falling to Topley in his four-over spell.
The Suffolk innings was in disarray at 33-5 off 14 overs when rain forced the players from the field, with the majority of the near-1,000 crowd deciding to leave at that point.
An hour’s delay followed before play resumed, Suffolk now facing a revised target of 214 from 44 overs, although this was never going to be within their reach.
Only six overs’ play was in effect lost as Suffolk had bowled their overs so quickly, but just four more overs were possible during which time Adam Mansfield was bowled, before further rain brought the match to a premature end.
Alex Oxley, who was undefeated on 19 for 32 deliveries, was the only Suffolk batter who appeared comfortable against Surrey’s attack.
Skipper Mansfield said afterwards: “It was a real shame. I thought the boys did superbly with the ball and then going out to bat against a really good Surrey attack we struggled a little bit but we did ourselves proud.”
