Fan Following

Sunny at The Oval

The season opener in London minus the cold and rain? Can't be missed

Andy Ryan
10-Apr-2010
Chris Rogers: calm and untroubled  •  Getty Images

Chris Rogers: calm and untroubled  •  Getty Images

The game
An early-season day at the cricket in England often involves huddling under an umbrella while staring at the covers. Not so at this season-opener at The Oval, where Surrey and Derbyshire played in wonderful sunshine. The great weather came on top of the day's really big piece of luck. I had somehow persuaded my girlfriend that what she really wanted to do with her rare day off was to spend seven hours at the cricket.
Team supported
Surrey. For Surrey fans, today was all about how county cricket's youngest captain, Rory Hamilton-Brown, would do on his first day in the job.
Key performer
Chris Rogers put on a ruthlessly efficient 178 for Derby. Bad balls were viciously dispatched but it was more about accumulation than aggression, and he was generally happy to nurdle the ball around. Such was his untroubled calmness that it had the feel of watching a workman casually going about his job.
Shot of the day
A Rogers straight drive off Jade Dernbach. It was so well-timed that it seemed the batsman barely exerted any energy. And it flew to the boundary with that satisfying "tock" sound.
One thing I'd have changed
The pitch. Surrey's mostly young seam attack bowled pretty well with little reward and a livelier pitch would have led to a livelier contest.
Wow moment
The surprising success of Usman Afzaal's very inoffensive spin bowling. With Rogers and Greg Smith going strongly, putting on Afzaal seemed a desperate attempt to break the partnership. Two poor shots later, he had the day's best bowling figures and Surrey had a way back into the game.
Player watch
Gareth Batty came to fetch a ball that had been smashed to the fence in front of our stand. Instead of a bit of friendly chat with the crowd, he glared angrily at us. Perhaps it was our fault that no one could get Rogers out.
Face-off I relished
Andre Nel v Rogers. The fiery tank-like South African was left very angry by the defiant Australian. Again and again Nel beat Rogers' bat. Then Rogers was dropped off Nel's bowling on 46. Nel stared angrily at the offending fielder for a very long time. Then he stared angrily at Rogers for a very long time. After that he went back to getting the ball to rip past Rogers' outside edge. But had no luck and was left simmering.
Crowd meter
All the noise in our stand was provided by one old man at the back. He tended to growl rather than cheer. Hamilton-Brown was loudly insulted: "can't win the toss, can't bowl". Arun Harinath was invited to have some of his beer. Strangely, he greeted every new Surrey bowler by roaring "come on, fire up the Quattro". As for the rest, this was a typical county championship crowd. At any one moment there seemed to be barely a handful of people watching the cricket. Most were engrossed in newspapers or beer. All successes, however, were greeted with polite applause.
County Championship v IPL
A tie. Having been immersed in the IPL for the past few weeks, I enjoyed seeing the players in traditional white kits and the gentle pace came as somewhat a relief. I am, however, ashamed to admit that during some periods of very low scoring, I did miss the IPL's endless boundaries. The IPL has clearly left me a hopeless boundary addict.
Marks out of 10
7. Not a classic day but Rogers' innings was a treat. The momentum ebbed and flowed in that wonderful way that only seems possible in the four-day game.

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Andy Ryan is 22 and about to become an English teacher. He has unfortunately had to admit defeat in his battle to England's answer to Shane Warne. He would like every summer to be like the summer of 2005. He is part of a group that has just created The County Cricket Review which they hope will become a place where county fans can write match reports and generally hang out.