Rothesay County Championship, The Kia Oval (day 4)
Surrey 421: Lawrence 218 & 259-5 dec Sibley 105*, Lawrence 101
Hampshire 333: Potgieter 84*; Clark 4-64 & 101-2: Orr 53*
Surrey (15 pts) drew with Hampshire (13 pts)
Dan Lawrence added a dismissive 64-ball 101 to his first-innings 218 from 190 balls however not even his batting heroics might stop Surrey’s weather-hit match in opposition to Hampshire on the Kia Oval from being drawn.
With 92 overs misplaced in all to dangerous climate over the primary three days, it was all the time going to be troublesome for Surrey to pressure victory after beginning the ultimate day 145 runs forward on 57-2 of their second innings.
However at the least Lawrence’s exceptional hundred, which featured 5 sixes and 7 fours, plus a tremendous unbeaten 105 by Dom Sibley, gave them an opportunity to declare at 259-5 at lunch to depart Hampshire a fourth innings goal of 348 in 64 overs.
They completed on 101-2, content material to bat out time after a new-ball burst of 6-4-10-2 by Reece Topley left them wobbling on 19-2.
Ali Orr and Jake Lehmann, although, then stayed collectively for 34 overs both facet of tea to placed on an unbroken 82 for Hampshire’s third wicket.
Opener Orr ended 53 not out from 121 balls and Lehmann an unbeaten 26 from 103, with fingers shaken at 17:00 BST with 20 overs remaining un-bowled.
Surrey thought they may have had Lehmann leg-before on two when off-spinner Will Jacks slid one on with the arm into the left-hander’s pads from across the wicket, however the Australian survived.
And the one different scares got here when Lehmann, on six, edged Jordan Clark over Rory Burns’ fingers at first slip when he drove flat-footedly on the seamer and simply earlier than tea Tom Curran swung a full ball into Orr’s pads however didn’t win the attraction.
Lawrence turned solely the second participant in County Championship historical past to attain each a double hundred and hundred at higher than a run a ball in the identical recreation, following Graeme Hick for Worcestershire in opposition to Glamorgan at Abergavenny in 1990.
He’s additionally solely simply the third Surrey batsman, after Mark Ramprakash in 2010 and Scott Newman in 2005, to hit a double hundred and hundred in the identical first-class match.
Lawrence’s thrilling assault helped Surrey to rack up 202 runs in 32 overs throughout a morning session wherein Hampshire’s solely focus was to get their over price up into optimistic territory – in order to keep away from any factors deduction – whereas additionally making an attempt their greatest to stem the scoring price.
Resuming on 57-2, Surrey misplaced nightwatchman Matt Fisher for 12 when he hit Felix Organ’s off spin straight to quick mid wicket and Lawrence, becoming a member of Sibley, was instantly into his stride.
Unquestionably in prime kind after his magnificent first innings 218, and the unbeaten 94 he scored in Surrey’s slim T20 Blast defeat in opposition to Hampshire final Friday night, Lawrence took simply 35 balls to succeed in his half-century.
Organ, as in Surrey’s first innings, suffered at his fingers with a number of sixes disappearing over the legside boundary nevertheless it was James Fuller’s fast-medium which introduced probably the most extraordinary of Lawrence’s stream of sweetly-struck strokes.
Crouching down on to at least one knee, Lawrence merely flicked a ball that was at the least a few toes outdoors his off stump to deep sq. leg for one more six. It took him to 88 and, by then, Hampshire’s bowlers have been discovering it nearly inconceivable to bowl to him.
After he fell to Delano Potgieter, after 21 overs of mayhem, Ollie Pope was caught on the deep mid wicket ropes for a single and it was Sam Curran who stayed with Sibley till he accomplished his personal hundred with maybe one of the best two pictures of his whole innings.
Within the penultimate over earlier than lunch Sibley pulled Potgieter for six to go to 96 after which, subsequent ball, drove him powerfully by cowl to beat two fielders patrolling the lengthy boundary facet of the bottom. Curran by then had additionally pulled Potgieter for six.
Hampshire’s 13 level haul was sufficient to raise them off the foot of the Division One table whereas Surrey are as much as second with their 15 factors, although either side have performed a recreation greater than their rivals.
Report provided by the ECB Reporters’ Community, supported by Rothesay.
