Jamie Smith continued his prolific early-season kind with an easy 89 off 109 balls as Surrey batted out day 4 to safe a draw in opposition to Leicestershire on the Kia Oval.
Ollie Pope, who like Smith had made 100 in Surrey’s first innings, additionally impressed with an unbeaten 83 as a soporific batting floor finally had the final phrase in a match of 1,474 runs and solely 24 wickets.
Surrey, who started their second innings 171 runs adrift initially of the ultimate day, completed on 263-4 with Ben Foakes alongside Pope on 28 not out.
Smith, who struck two sixes and 13 sweetly-timed fours, had scored 132 and 166 in his two earlier innings and has now plundered 396 runs from his first 4 knocks of the Rothesay County Championship season at a median of 99.
Leicestershire, newly promoted to Division One and who misplaced closely to Sussex within the opening spherical of video games, will take a whole lot of confidence from 4 days through which they went toe-to-toe with a group which has received three championship titles within the final 4 years – and had been runners-up final September.
They batted with nice willpower on days two and three to submit 691 and go properly previous Surrey’s first innings of 520, and so they additionally had their moments with the ball on day 4.
Surrey captain Rory Burns fell for a duck to the fifth ball of the morning, chopping on in opposition to Ian Holland as he tried to chop a supply from across the wicket and too near him for the shot.
And after Smith and Dom Sibley had steadied Surrey with a second wicket partnership of 105 in 28 overs, Leicestershire stored up their outdoors likelihood of forcing an upset by eradicating Sibley on the stroke of lunch for 32 and – in a while, after Smith and Pope had overhauled the deficit of their subsequent stand of 71 – snatching two extra top-order wickets in an over.
Two brief rain delays,although, took 16 overs out of the day’s allocation and, in fact, Surrey at all times regarded comfy regardless of dropping Sibley, Smith and Dan Lawrence to left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel inside 13 overs as they slipped to 177-4.
Patel, capped 22 instances at Check stage by New Zealand, wheeled away from the Pavilion Finish for a lot of the morning and afternoon periods and primarily tried to take advantage of the bowlers’ footmarks outdoors the precise handers’ leg stump.
Pope, specifically, was blissful sufficient to pad away people who weren’t referred to as wides when lacking the footmarks and failing to show, however Patel’s first success got here when Sibley guided a catch to backward brief leg off the face of his bat.
Smith then top-edged a sweep at Patel and was properly caught by a tumbling Tom Scriven on the rope at deep backward sq. leg, whereas Lawrence departed for nought when he tried to pad away one other ball fired in from over the wicket and noticed it merely clip his entrance pad on its approach into the highest of off stump.
There have been nonetheless 17.3 overs left of the day’s shortened allocation when arms had been shaken on the draw at 4.50pm, and with Pope and Foakes having placed on an unbroken 86 for the fifth wicket.
Report by ECB Reporters’ Community, supported by Rothesay.
