Surrey 464 (Smith 155, Sibley 64, Foakes 52, Abbott 50*, Miles 5-43) and 89 for 1 (Sibley 46*) beat Warwickshire 343 (Barnard 108, Clark 4-65) and 209 (Yates 52, Roach 6-46) by nine wickets
Surrey took just 39 minutes on the fourth morning to complete an impressive nine-wicket victory against Warwickshire at the Kia Oval and go 21 points clear at the top of the Vitality County Championship.
Dom Sibley finished unbeaten on 46 and Ollie Pope scored 13 not out after Surrey captain Rory Burns, on 30, hit Jacob Bethell’s left arm spin straight to deep mid-on soon after skipping down the pitch and lofting the same bowler straight for six.
Sibley collected two boundaries for firm on-drives against Bethell while Pope swept Bethell for four and also drove Rob Yates’ offspin to the extra cover ropes in a little cameo.
Surrey began the final day needing 58 more runs to win, after resuming on 31 without loss chasing a modest fourth innings target of 89 for a third successive Division One win and a maximum 24 points.
The 2022 and 2023 county champions are already looking in ominously powerful form again as they bid for a hat-trick of titles and a fourth in seven years. After five matches, Surrey have opened up a significant gap on both second-placed Essex and third-placed Somerset, who are a further two points back. Neither Essex nor Somerset played in this round of games.
“We fought hard throughout the game to get the win and it was a very good team performance,” Surrey head coach, Gareth Batty, said. “We built partnerships when batting, we had good partnerships with the ball and the fielding was also good, so we’re very pleased.
“Our bowling was actually a bit clunky at the start of the match, after a bye week last week, but we got better and better and really turned the screws later in the game and showed just what a wonderful bowling unit we have.
“But Jordan Clark and Sean Abbott have also contributed a lot with the ball in this game and Abbott’s magnificent caught and bowled in their second innings [to dismiss Ed Barnard for 44] really closed the door on Warwickshire.
“I also want to give a shout out to Lee Fortis and all the groundstaff here at the Kia Oval. We’ve had a great tussle for the first two days and then we managed to pull away on day three but we’ve had more than a thousand runs and a positive result at the end of it and I think we consistently have the best cricket wickets in the country on which to play. That’s a real testament to Lee and his team.”
Warwickshire fought hard to keep Surrey at bay, first recovering to reach 343 in their first innings after initially slipping to 167 for 6 and then battling back with the ball to peg Surrey to 349 for 8 in reply after they had been 308 for 3.
The visitors also suffered the bad luck of a freak injury to fast bowler Craig Miles, whose 5 for 43 – and three wickets in three overs with the second new ball – had done much to keep Warwickshire in the game late on day two.
Miles, jumping in celebration of his fifth wicket, went over nastily on his right ankle and damaged ligaments so severely that he could not put weight on his foot the following day and so did not even bat in Warwickshire’s second innings.
Warwickshire, who bowled their spinners on the final morning to make sure they were not docked a point for a slow over rate across the game, take four points from their first defeat of the campaign.
Warwickshire captain, Alex Davies, said: “Ed Barnard had an excellent game for us with his hundred in the first innings and a second-innings 44 only ended by a brilliant caught and bowled by Sean Abbott. We battled hard to stay in the match but Craig Miles’ freak ankle injury right at the end of day two was a big blow to us and Surrey are a really top side who showed their quality.”