Surrey relegated as Javid hits matchwinning ton for Warwickshire
Last updated on .From the section Counties
| LV CC Division One, Edgbaston |
| Warwickshire 120-0 dec & 281-4 beat Surrey 400-5 & 0-0 dec by six wickets |
| Warwickshire 17 pts, Surrey 5 pts |
| Match scorecard |
Surrey suffered relegation back to Division Two of the County Championship after their bold declaration gamble failed to pay off at Edgbaston.
Needing to win to stand any hope of staying up, Surrey captain Gareth Batty struck a deal with Warwickshire stand-in skipper Varun Chopra.
But, asked to chase only 281 to win in four sessions, the Bears got home in some comfort after resuming on 55-2.
Ateeq Javid (119) and Chris Woakes (79) saw them to a six-wicket win on 281-4.
The pair shared an unbroken partnership of 155 for the fifth wicket after the morning departure of Surrey old boys Laurie Evans (34) and Rikki Clarke (17) had briefly offered hope of the away win the visitors needed to keep their survival hopes alive.
Warwickshire's 17 points from the match meant that last season's champions will go into next week's final round of fixtures still with a chance of finishing third.
But with the end coming at Edgbaston for Surrey, relegation will be a particularly painful blow for Batty, Solanki and wicketkeeper Steven Davies, who all used to play for neighbouring Worcestershire and now face the prospect of having to return to New Road to play Division Two cricket next summer.
After being relegated for the first time in 2008, Surrey were then promoted back to the top flight in 2011 - but have only managed two seasons back in Division One.
The 2013 campaign started with such promise at The Oval after the signings of Vikram Solanki from Worcestershjre and Lancashire's County Championship-winning spinner Gary Keedy, further supplemented by the exciting winter recruitment of South African Test captain Graeme Smith and Australian legend Ricky Ponting.
But Smith lasted just three Championship matches before succumbing to an ankle injury and not even the late-season signing of his South African team-mate Hashim Amla could save the Brown Caps.
By then, Surrey had parted company with team director Chris Adams, who was replaced by Surrey legend Alec Stewart in midsummer, but it has not gone to plan for the former England skipper either.
Stewart and Surrey are yet to announce their plans for next season, but it was reported on Friday that South African Graeme Ford, the former Kent coach, has reiterated his intention to step down as Sri Lanka coach when his contract expires in January.
The 52-year-old, is a reported Surrey target, and has ties with Surrey captain Smith, who is due to return in 2014, after coaching him while in charge of South Africa.
VIEW FROM THE DRESSING ROOM
Surrey coach Alec Stewart told BBC London 94.9:
"League tables don't lie. Over the whole season we haven't played well enough.
"You get what you deserve and that is relegation. Nobody has a divine right to play in the top division.
"We had to wait until our 12th game of the season to win our first game and that's not good enough. But we have to take in on the chin.
"Warwickshire played outstandingly well, but this was only a second day pitch. We had to gamble. They held all the cards and we couldn't get the breakthrough.
"Over the winter, we'd now like to see some improvements made that will help us challenge next year to win promotion."
Bears batsman Ateeq Javid told BBC WM:
"Last night it was a bit tricky with the new ball, and then first thing this morning too, but I got myself in, we got through to lunch and it helped batting with Woakesie.
"It has been great to be given my chance this season but these are the sort of moments you put in all the hard work for and I've got more confident as the season's gone on.
"And it was a great compliment to have Hashim Amla, the world's number one batsman, come up to me and tell me how well I'd played."
VIEW FROM THE COMMENTARY BOX
Mark Church (BBC London 94.9):
"Bitter disappointment for Surrey as they drop into the Second Division of the Championship.
"Even though they gave themselves a chance of winning this game and keeping their season alive until next week the table does not lie.
"Just one win meant that Surrey were always under pressure to force a result at Edgbaston and Ateeq Javid batted extremely well to guide the hosts to victory."
Comments
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The top two this year did it largely on home grown local talent. Hopefully other counties will take not.
What goes around comes around Mr Batty.
Second class as a cricketer, no class as a human being.
Maybe relegation will produce a rethink of this policy.
It certainly should do.
They also are a bit flash, the Surrey strut etc.
Think I have to agree with those critics who state that Surrey are buying a team rather than building one. It's great having one or at most two fantastic players like Amla playing for your county but a wealthy club like Surrey owes it to all of English cricket to be developing the best of our youngsters.
There's too many of these games- Yorks vs Sussex last week was heading for a contrived finish. Again, one team had nothing to loose. Perhaps the result isn't strictly fixed, but agreeing with the opposition to alter the course of a match is very dodgy. 'Declaration Bowling'?- what a joke. Surrey might as well have asked how many they wanted to chase on day 1, forget the 1st inns altogether
Or maybe foreign players only care about living in London and getting fat pay cheques. Remind you of football, anyone?
Your selective memory seems to have forgotten Warks should have lost at Somerset when the umpire failed to give your last wicket out to an obvious catch behind.
I'm not specifically having a go a Warks- but do you really think that you'd agree to declare at 120/0 if you really needed the points? We've had a poor season, and if we go down we'll deserve it. But I can stomach going down on the back of our own poor results, but not on the back of effectively fixed games.
As a supporter of a small club, I'm very proud that we won div 2 last year.
...players can move from county to county to play for a better side with greater prospects
This is very true, but players obviously moved to Surrey for the money!