Davies guides Surrey to comfortable win
Steven Davies fell just four short of his hundred as Surrey Lions made a winning start to their Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign with a comfortable seven-wicket win over Scotland
01-May-2011
Steven Davies fell just four short of his hundred as Surrey Lions made a winning start to their Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign with a comfortable seven-wicket win over Scotland in their Group B encounter at The Oval.
The 24-year-old left-hander has his eye on an England recall this summer after missing out on the World Cup, and continued his run of good form with 96 off 97 balls as Surrey eased past their target of 197 with seven overs to spare. A sixth List A hundred looked his for the taking but, trying to work the ball through square, he got a leading edge to backward point to give Gordon Goudie his second wicket.
Davies lost his opening partner Rory Hamilton-Brown in the second over of the reply when the Surrey captain mis-timed a pull-drive off Goudie to midwicket, but it was plain sailing for Surrey after that as Davies and Jason Roy put together a match-winning stand of 128 in 20.3 overs.
Davies offered a couple of half-chances when his mis-timed drive nearly gave Matt Parker a return catch while Majid Haq failed to pick up the flight of the ball at long on when he was on 88. His innings also featured 11 fours, five of which were struck in 11 balls off Parker at one stage, and followed an impressive 98 in the County Championship against Middlesex last week.
Roy powered a six through the off side off Haq and the 20-year-old also struck nine fours in his maiden List A half-century, although Haq had his revenge when Roy was caught on the mid-wicket boundary having made 60 off 62 balls. Zander de Bruyn struck an unbeaten 32 on his Surrey one-day debut, winning the game when he drove Goudie over long on for six.
The Saltires had earlier failed to make the most of perfect batting conditions after winning the toss, despite a maiden half-century from Josh Davey. The 20-year-old from Aberdeen is on Middlesex's books but on loan to the Scots for the competition and he held their innings together with 50 off 73 balls to underpin a total of 196 for 9.
When he was adding 49 in 10 overs with Preston Mommsen for the fifth wicket, Scotland had hopes of posting a competitive total - especially as they still had a powerplay up their sleeves. Davey could only find the boundary twice, but his footwork against Surrey's spinners was assured as he more than doubled his previous highest score in a List A game - 24 for his country against Holland last year.
Mommsen was pinned in front by Chris Schofield's arm ball for 30 after some impressive hitting, while Davey departed in the 36th over after making 50 from 73 balls when he mis-timed a drive at Yasir Arafat, who took three wickets but proved expensive.
Scotland plundered 35 from their second powerplay, which they took in the 35th over, thanks to some bold hitting from Calvin Burnett. He made 31 off 26 balls with four boundaries on his debut but Scotland's total was never going to be enough against a strong Surrey batting line-up and, after three successive defeats, their chances of reaching the knockout stages are slim.
