English County Cricket: Bubbling up nicely

Final throw of the dice for Surrey today, as they forfeited their second innings to set Warwickshire 281 to win in 21 overs and the final day.

Earlier in the season, such a declaration may have led to cries for captain and coach to be summarily dismissed, but at this stage such a gamble has to be taken. With former Surrey men Laurie Evans and Rikki Clarke in their side, the Bears could consign erstwhile teammates to the drop. Then again, Surrey may come out on top and could be right back in the mix.

Mind you, they would then need to beat Yorkshire, who will be keen to finish in second place, but a win for the Londoners tomorrow would mean that Nottinghamshire and Somerset would have to go for a win next week. I’m not suggesting that there would be any collusion between the two sides, but the fact that both sides could survive with bonus points has set the conspiracy theorists twitching. Let’s just say that a high scoring draw next week would be an unfortunate coincidence at Trent Bridge and that for cricket’s sake I hope that it doesn’t happen.

Elsewhere today, Lancashire have parted company with opening batsman Stephen Moore, who joined them on a very lucrative contract in 2009. It is natural for people to see him come onto the market, aware that Derbyshire could do with an opening batsman and put two and two together.

I’m not so sure. I have no doubt that he remains a batsman of some talent, but his form has dipped alarmingly in recent seasons as his game seems to have become formulated on the ‘hit everything’ of T20. I wouldn’t rule out interest, but it would have to be on considerably lower terms than Moore is on at Old Trafford. I suspect he may go back to his old county, Worcestershire, unless he prices himself out of the county game with his financial demands.

More tomorrow, when we’ll see how the Surrey gamble has gone and be better placed to comment on the challenge facing Derbyshire next week.