What little talk there was in the build up to the game between Cambridge MCCU and Surrey was, not unreasonably, about the return to action of Kevin Pietersen, but the MCCU have played some decent cricket this season and the decision of the Surrey coaching staff to field a virtual second eleven to support him looked flawed from day one.
At this point I should express an interest, since I’ve been going to Fenner’s on a regular basis for over twenty years, in which time I’ve seen Mike Atherton, John Crawley, Steve James and Ed Smith shine for the light blues and plenty of highly talented opposition players make hay against a generally friendly bowling attack. As a consequence, the two hours that I watched last night and the regular updates on cricinfo that I’ve been following for three days have, I suspect, more resonance for me than for many cricket fans, but this was a fabulous performance by the MCCU.
After reducing Surrey to 234-9 on the first day, the usual trend would have been for the MCCU to fold for around 200, with a bravura performance from the county to following the second innings. This, however, didn’t happen. First of all Ansari (who had previously bowled superbly for his 5-33) and Ackland put on a hundred for the first wicket in quick time, Craig Park steadied the middle order and then Paul Best, recently captain of England under 19s and with an appearance for Warwickshire under his belt this season, played the innings of his life. His 150 from just 181 balls featured some audacious strokeplay and a remarkable 129 run partnership for the ninth wicket with the composed Josh Poysden. In all, the MCCU’s last four wickets added 243. Heady times.
The start of the Surrey innings was remarkable. Gary Wilson survived a confident appeal for caught behind first ball and was dismissed two balls later, and Matthew Spriegel, having confidently dispatched his first ball for four, fell to a high looking LBW decision to the last ball of the first over. Whatever Kevin Pietersen had in mind for his comeback, I suspect that coming in at 4-2 didn’t feature very highly.
Pietersen looked in good touch, helped by some rather sloppy feeling which required me to climb over a bench to retrieve the ball, but this morning the impressive Rob Woolley, the MCCU captain, brought his innings to a close and the rest slipped away, leaving the MCCU just four to win which they duly achieved from the third ball of the innings.
Yes, I know that this was basically Surrey 2nd XI, but the fact is that they were spanked by a good looking MCCU side, who will rightly be celebrating tonight. It will be interesting to see what kind of side Surrey pick next time they play Cambridge
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