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Surrey embarrassed by heavy opening defeat against Gloucestershire

Chris Liddle and Tom Smith claimed three wickets each as Gloucestershire skittled Surrey for just 88

Jason Roy walks off after being dismissed  •  Getty Images

Jason Roy walks off after being dismissed  •  Getty Images

Gloucestershire 235 (Dent 75, Roderick 74, Clarke 4-43) beat Surrey 88 (Smith 3-7, Liddle 3-17) by 147 runs
Chris Liddle and Tom Smith claimed three wickets each as Gloucestershire skittled Surrey for just 88 to win their opening Royal London One-Day Cup match at Bristol by 147 runs.
The home side were bowled out for 235 after winning the toss, having been 156 for one, with Chris Dent and Gareth Roderick the main contributors, while Rikki Clarke and Tom Curran shared seven wickets. It looked a below par total. But Surrey turned in a hapless batting display, Jason Roy top-scoring with 19 as they were bowled out in only 24 overs.
Liddle finished with 3 for 17 and left-arm spinner Smith 3 for 7 from two overs. Tightly as Gloucestershire bowled, it was an abject display by the visiting batting line-up.
The game was played in bright sunshine on a slow pitch. Surrey made a quick breakthrough when George Hankins chased a wide delivery from Clarke and edged through to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.
The best batting of the day followed as, having taken time to assess the pace of the pitch, Dent and Roderick played with increasing freedom. Skipper Dent was first to his half-century, off 62 balls, with four fours and a pulled six off Clarke, and Roderick soon followed, off 65 deliveries, having struck seven boundaries.
The pair were making batting look easy, Roderick having lofted Liam Plunkett over midwicket for six, when they fell in quick succession. Dent skied a catch to mid-on off Clarke to end a stand of 152 in 25 overs and the next over saw Roderick miscue to mid-off to give Curran his first wicket.
The collapse that followed was a major surprise. Soon Gloucestershire were 171 for 5, with Ian Cockbain bowled off stump by Gareth Batty and Jack Taylor stumped attempting to swing Will Jacks' offspin into the leg side. Benny Howell and Ryan Higgins added 43 for the sixth wicket before falling to Clarke and Curran respectively and there was little contribution from the tail as Gloucestershire were bowled out inside 48 overs.
Surrey looked strong favourites at halfway, but never recovered from losing Mark Stoneman to the third ball of their innings, bowled by Dan Worrall with a ball that nipped back off the seam. It was the start of a sorry procession, Liddle removing three of the top five in Roy, Rory Burns and Foakes, while Jacks, on 17, dislodged his leg bail attempting to pull Worrall as Surrey slumped to 61 for 5.
There was simply no resistance as Howell had Ollie Pope caught behind down the leg side for 13, Clarke was bowled by Higgins and Smith polished off the tail by sending back Curran, Batty and Plunkett in the space of 11 balls.
The speed with which the match ended caught everyone by surprise and Surrey - three times finalists in this competition between 2015 and 2017 - were left to reflect an opening group performance that was little short of embarrassing.
Surrey head coach Michael Di Venuto was disappointed by his side's performance.
"It would be nice to start this competition well, but we have made a habit of doing the opposite in recent years," Di Venuto said. "It was a particularly disappointing batting performance. We had a bit of bad luck with a few of the dismissals, strangles down the leg-side and a hit-wicket, but in general we didn't adapt to the sort of pitch we were playing on.
"Hopefully, we have got this out of our systems early and we will be looking to put things right quickly against Sussex at Hove on Friday."