Dom Sibley’s 105 Powers Surrey to Victory – Ending Losing Streak and Impacting Leicestershire’s Knock-Out Hopes
Dom Sibley’s incredible century helped Surrey snap a five-match losing streak and seriously undermine Leicestershire’s hopes of making it to the next round of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
With their first Metro Bank One-Day Cup victory of the season, Surrey ended a run of five straight losses behind in-form Dom Sibley’s second century in three games, severely hurting Leicestershire’s prospects of making it to the knockout stages.
Key Performances and Match Results:
Leicestershire 279 (Budinger 70, Scriven 55, Steel 3-48) lost to Surrey 296 for 6 (Sibley 105, Patel 72, Geddes 61) by 17 runs.
Sibley made 105 after scoring 149 against Warwickshire and 72 against Nottinghamshire. He shared two wicket stands of 138 with Ryan Patel (72) and 111 with Ben Geddes (61) as Surrey amassed 296 for 6. Despite dropping five wickets in the final eight overs, it was sufficient.
Opening batsman Sol Budinger, who scored 70 runs off of 68 balls to hold the record for most runs scored in the competition, and Tom Scriven, who hit a career-high 55, gave the Foxes a chance, but in the end, leg-spinner Cameron Steel took 3 for 48 to lead the winning side.
The best bowlers for the Foxes were all-rounders Ian Holland (2 for 50) and Scriven (2 for 51), with 19-year-old seamer Sam Wood getting 1 for 34 in his List A debut.
Surrey’s season-best start was facilitated by Sibley and Patel at bat, especially if the Foxes performed well with the ball.
On a cloudy morning, Surrey was asked to bat first. After 10 overs of zero runs, they were 125 for nothing at the midway point. Sibley had reached fifty from 59 balls, and Patel had reached his from 72.
Patel was unlucky to be fired. As he attempted to hook the towering Wood, he appeared to take a blow to the shoulder, and the ball bounced off his helmet and onto the stumps.
Geddes kept up Surrey’s winning beginning. After being dropped at fine leg by Chris Wright on 35 off Liam Trevaskis, he went on to make 26 more runs until being caught at deep midwicket by Roman Walker.
After Rory Burns was bowled sweeping, Sibley reached his century from 115 balls in the 42nd over with his 11th four, but he miscued to long-off, giving Scriven two wickets in a row.
After that, Josh Blake was caught at backward point by Holland, and Ollie Sykes, a 19-year-old rookie for Surrey, was caught at long on. This was the fifth wicket to fall in seven overs, as Surrey went from 249 for 1 to 286 for 6.
After Lewis Hill was caught behind by Conor McKerr and Holland successfully executed a deep backward square against James Taylor, the Foxes’ pursuit was derailed, finishing at 49 for 2 from 10.
Ajinkya Rahane just avoided a costly drop by Steel as he and Budinger started to pick up pace, with the latter scoring fifty for the fourth time in five innings, including a century against Essex at Chelmsford. Rahane was spilled at cover on four off McKerr. However, Rahane was only able to reach 27 before Patel caught him at midwicket, maybe due to the ball sticking in the pitch a little.
On this field last year, Budinger and Peter Handscomb combined for 113 runs to win the match against Essex; however, this time, they could only muster 48 runs before Budinger was caught at deep midwicket.
At 142 for 4 in the 26th over, it felt like a big occasion. Two overs later, Handscomb shot straight to cover, and both batsmen fell to Steel.
Yousef Majid, a left-arm spinner, bowled Trevaskis, and Cox was bowled leg-before by McKerr. While Scriven hit two sixes, the contest was kept alive by his 45-run eighth-wicket stand with Wood, who was stumped off by Steel for 22. However, Scriven’s 20 off Taylor in the final over was always improbable, and the match ended with Scriven falling to an incredible catch by Patel at backward point as Leicestershire were all out for 279 runs.
Although Warwickshire and Glamorgan top Group B with five wins apiece, qualification for the knockout stages is still feasible with three wins from five.
In memory of the late famous England and Surrey player Graham Thorpe, both teams wore black armbands, and the match began with a minute’s silence.
