Surrey 42 for 0 path Somerset 269 (Davies 86, Trescothick 65, Clarke 7-55) by 227 runs
As The Oval clock ticked over to 5 o'clock, Rikki Clarke raised the ball up and led Surrey off, saluting the home crowd as they admired his career-best figures. It was a minute that both the gamer and viewers had long idea would never ever come.
Lots of members at this hallowed ground have memories of Clarke emerging from Surrey's academy, spotty however teeming with an effervescent skill. His 3rd County Championship match, 15 years back, brought a superb 153 not out versus Somerset at Taunton. Include the casual catches in the slips and the speed and bounce he created from his 6ft 4in frame, and Clarke was instantly defined as a gamer of supreme pledge. It took just 10 superior matches for England to be convinced to pick him in a worldwide team.
Over the following years, the attractive possibility of Clarke offering England with runs, wickets and captures – as he carried out in 2 accomplished Tests in Bangladesh in 2003 – paved the way to aggravation at why such a skill was stagnating. Therefore Clarke left his home county in 2007, using up the Derbyshire captaincy in an effort to renew his profession. The relocation stopped working, marvelously. By the summertime's end Clarke had actually quit the task and after that gave up the county for great. Then came a relocation to Warwickshire, where Clarke ended up being a cricketer of the calibre and consistency that those who had actually enjoyed the guarantee of those early efficiencies for Surrey anticipated, even if an England recall never ever rather came.
After a years of prizes and fulfilment at Edgbaston, regardless of this summer season's battles, Clarke returned home. He signed a two-year agreement starting next year. After Dominic Sibley moved to Warwickshire, the 2 were included in a mid-season loan swap, and Clarke was thrust back into Surrey's group.
He went back to discover a totally brand-new function. It was not simply that Clarke had actually aged. Where when he was a stubborn cricketer, now he was hired to bring strength. And while he had actually invested his very first Surrey profession in the leading 6, Clarke has actually gone back to an area of No. 8, and even 9, which rather appears to belittle his 16 superior centuries.
While Clarke was away, he established into an extremely experienced bowler, proficient at cutting the ball from an uncomfortable height. Where he had actually when sprayed the ball in pursuit of wickets, he returned with the persistence to find a penetrating line and length remorselessly.
Over 16 satisfying seasons in expert cricket, never ever have actually those qualities been as convincing as today. On a pitch on which Somerset had actually lost just one wicket in the early morning session, and even that on the verge of lunch, Clarke jagged the ball spitefully both methods at an uncomfortable length.
The Oval is not the sort of ground on which numerous bowlers produce a spell of 5 for 32 in 10 overs,
