Surrey will play Gloucestershire in the final of the Royal London Cup after a thrilling four run defeat of Nottinghamshire, who chased tenaciously but were unable to haul in a score of 300 built almost entirely around an A-list one-day hundred from Kumar Sangakkara. There are batting masterclasses, and then there are Sangakkara batting masterclasses and here Surrey’s 37-year-old overseas player produced a gloriously high craft innings of 166 off 138 balls on a tricky pitch.
In reply Notts were reduced to 16 for three by some accurate Surrey new ball bowling, before Greg Smith scored a diligent, workmanlike, perfectly paced hundred of his own – his second to Sangakkara’s 36th – which, with support from Samit Patel and Dan Christian, threatened to overwhelm a youthful Surrey attack in the evening shadows. With Steven Mullaney also playing with freedom Nottinghamshire were left needing 19 off the last two overs. Chris Read was bowled mowing across the line at a superbly executed Jade Dernbach slower ball as Surrey’s up-and-down death specialist held his nerve to leave 14 required off the final over and in effect win the game at the last, to scenes of jubilation and no little relief from the home team.
The demands of television had led to one of the more bizarre pieces of scheduling, a semi-final played on a Monday morning a week into the school term. But the Kia Oval was, if not exactly heaving, then at least vaguely quivering on a glum September day as Sangakkara set about building Surrey’s total from a stodgy start.
Without Jason Roy, their most potent weapon in this competition, Surrey had struggled a little against a high-grade Notts attack for whom Stuart Broad and Harry Gurney produced a bright opening spell. It was only when Gary Wilson joined Sangakkara at 145 for three in the 32nd over that batting began to look easier. A fourth-wicket stand of 149 at eight an over saw Sangakkara padding down the wicket to drive over cover, swiping elegantly square, taking 21 runs off the 49th over with successive ramps over the keeper – one orthodox, one switch – and generally looking a man playing a completely different game to everyone else around him.
Surrey’s 17-year-old left-arm tyro Sam Curran had picked a very public place to duck out of school, having passed up the joys of the first day back at Wellington college in order to play here. Four balls into his first over, the second of Notts’ reply, he was on a hat-trick, skiddy pace and late in-swing drawing a chop-on from Riki Wessels and trapping Brendan Taylor lbw.
Dernbach had Michael Lumb caught at slip before Patel and Smith rebuilt carefully. Christian bludgeoned his way to a thrilling fifty off just 38 balls and Smith reached a hard-run hundred that would ultimately prove to be in vain.
With promotion assured last Friday, Alec Stewart’s mix-and-match team of old hands and puppyish talents can now look forward to a Lord’s final against Gloucestershire on 19 September.
