Tons for Burns & Clark as Surrey dominate Hants
Jordan Clark struck 12 fours and two sixes in his unbeaten 106
- Published
Vitality County Championship Division One, Kia Oval, (day two)
Hampshire 151 & 31-2: Worrall 1-10
Surrey 359: Burns 113, Clark 106*; Abbott 4-104
Hampshire (3 pts) trail Surrey (6 pts) by 177 runs
Contrasting hundreds by captain Rory Burns and Jordan Clark put champions Surrey in control against Hampshire in County Championship Division One.
Burns’ seven-hour 113 – his 25th first-class century but first since July 2022 – laid strong foundations before Clark smashed a run-a-ball unbeaten 106 as Surrey made 359 for a first-innings lead of 208.
Hampshire lost openers Ali Orr and Fletcha Middleton before bad light and rain took 20 overs off the day’s allocation. They will resume 177 behind on 31-2.
Surrey had been 44-4 replying to Hampshire’s 151 but having added 75 with Ryan Patel, Burns found an unlikely ally in nightwatchman Kemar Roach with whom he patiently put on 66 in the morning session. Burns would have been run out for 55 had Orr, running in from cover, hit the stumps.
Substitute fielder Ian Holland could not quite hold on diving one-handed to his right at mid-off, reprieving Roach who celebrated by clipping the 86th delivery he faced through mid-wicket for his only boundary.
Brad Wheal had Roach caught behind for 19 but Cameron Steel helped Burns take the lead past 150, upper-cutting Kyle Abbott for six to get off the mark before Abbott had him caught behind after lunch.
Mohammad Abbas – who finished with 1-43 from 28 overs – looked ruefully to the heavens when Tom Prest dropped Clark at slip on 16 and how the all-rounder made Hampshire pay, first by helping Burns put on 98.
Burns tucked his 236th ball into the leg side for the single which took him to his first hundred at the Oval in two years while Clark plundered a wilting attack with nine fours in a 53-ball fifty – and then greeted Liam Dawson’s belated arrival by launching the left-arm spinner’s third ball for six.
Burns’ marathon finally ended on 113 when he reverse-swept Dawson and was caught by Wheal. Abbott bowled Gus Atkinson but Dan Worrall hung around long enough for Clark to complete his hundred off 101 balls with 12 fours and a six.
He celebrated with another maximum before Roach and Worrall took a wicket apiece. Worrall’s yorker had Orr lbw and Middleton was caught at second slip nibbling at Roach.
Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.