Surrey slip amid the showers
A round-up of the opening matches of the county season from Division Two of the Championship
Cricinfo staff
16-Apr-2009
After a winless season in 2008, Surrey may have hoped for a more promising start than this in their bid for an immediate return to top-flight cricket. Play may have been restricted to a mere 17 overs on another soggy day at The Oval, but in that time they still contrived to spiral to 18 for 3 in their first innings, having earlier claimed Gloucestershire's last two wickets in a total of 333. James Franklin started the rot with the scalps of both openers, Michael Brown and Laurie Evans, before Jon Lewis removed Matt Spriegel for a duck. Usman Afzaal and Jon Batty saw them to the close without further loss, but they've got a lot of recovering to do yet.
A mere 22.4 overs were possible on the second day at Chelmsford, which was enough time for David Masters and Chris Wright to claim Derbyshire's last three wickets for 20 runs in 9.4 overs. Wright grabbed each of the last two batsmen for figures of 4 for 86, leaving Varun Chopra and Jason Gallian 13 overs to negotiate before the close. They did so without being separated in a stand of 29.
No play was possible on the second day between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire at Grace Road.