Favorite titles Surrey completed a remarkable innings-and-63-run win at the Kia Oval on day four, bowling Lancashire out for 177 in less than two sessions.
Longtime Division One leaders Surrey, winners in 2022 and 2023, made it seven victories from ten Vitality County Championship matches this season as Conor McKerr finished with 4 for 27 and Dan Worrall and Jordan Clark took three wickets each. For Surrey, it’s a significant step closer to a third consecutive championship.
In only his 12th first-class game, Lancashire’s highly regarded 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Matty Hurst made a valiant effort to hold Surrey off, adding a brilliant 64 to a first-innings 46. However, with wickets falling frequently, there was never any genuine doubt about the outcome.
After a rain-soaked third day that looked to have given Lancashire a chance to escape with a draw, they resumed still 214 runs behind on 26 for 1 from 11.1 overs. However, they lost their final nine wickets for 151 runs as Surrey’s five-man pace attack proved too much for them to handle for the second time in the match.
In the fifth complete over of the morning, Worrall, who has taken 40 wickets in the Championship at an average of just 15.55 runs per wicket, got the first breakthrough when he removed Lancashire captain Keaton Jennings for 13 and 16-year-old debutant Rocky Flintoff in consecutive deliveries.
He began by approaching left-hander Jennings from around the wicket. He swung one back at the former England Test opener, who did not provide a shot and watched the ball slam into the top of his off stump. Worrall’s outstanding bowling instantly resulted in a first ball duck for young Flintoff, the son of former England captain Andrew, who had looked so promise at bat, batting for 32 on the opening day as the youngest player in Lancashire’s first-class history.
Flintoff moved forward to an outswinger that bounced maybe a bit more than he anticipated and edged it to keeper Ben Foakes, who made a superb diving catch in front of first slip.
After that, Lancashire was 33 for 3, and they quickly fell to 82 for 5 when George Balderson edged a returning Worrall to second slip on four, and Josh Bohannon sliced a short, rising ball from Clark into his stumps to lose for 29.
Afterwards, Hurst was accompanied by Venkatesh Iyer in a sixth-wicket partnership of 36, which managed to take Lancashire till lunchtime. Iyer even showed audacity by flipping Worrall over the short leg-side boundary for six runs. After the interval, however, it took just two balls for Surrey to break the stand, as Iyer nibbled at Clark outside off stump and edged thinly to Foakes.
Tom Hartley provided less resistance as well, persevering through a tough spell from Sam Curran that saw him lose many times until he was able to hit Will Jacks’ off spin over long-on for six.
Hurst, though, was furious with himself for, following a valiant 116 balls that included seven fours, clipping the opening ball of McKerr’s second delivery, an innocent loosener, right into Ryan Patel’s hands at midwicket. In his ninth over, McKerr claimed two more wickets, with Josh Boyden losing his off stump to go for a second-ball duck and Tom Aspinwall lofting a full toss straight to mid off, signalling the end was near.
At short leg, shortly after 3 p.m., Hartley was the last man out, out of 22, defending McKerr to Patel. With his 3 for 34, Worrall concluded his Championship season with a wicket count of 32, while Clark’s 3 for 43 brought him to 32.
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