Curran shines as Surrey dismantle Lancashire on first day

18-year-old seamer Sam Curran (4-61) starred with the ball to help Surrey dismiss Lancashire for 287 on the opening day of their Specsavers County Championship match at The Oval.

Jordan Clark (56) backed up his career-best 84 against Yorkshire last week with a vital half-century, sharing 85 runs for the sixth-wicket with debutant Rob Jones (25) to lead Lancashire’s recovery after they had fallen to 99/5 after lunch on a sun-bathed day in south London.

Arron Lilley then hit four sixes in a quickfire 38 from 28 balls, before Nathan Buck (24*) and Simon Kerrigan (25) shared 48 runs for the final wicket to help the visitors take two batting points after the middle-order batsmen flattered to deceive.

Surrey then responded by reaching close of play unscathed on 50/0, with Rory Burns (33*) reaching 1,000 first-class runs for the season in helping the home side to cut the deficit to 237 runs.

The meeting between the two promoted sides from last season started well for Surrey, who are in third place four points ahead of Lancashire, with Luke Procter (5) falling cheaply in the eighth over lbw to left-arm seamer Curran, the first of his four victims on a memorable day for the teenage prodigy.

With Procter’s promotion not having the desired effect in the absence of Tom Smith, Liam Livingstone (37) then found his credentials being tested by a confident Surrey bowling attack, with the Curran brothers sharing a testing new-ball spell in the morning session.

Haseeb Hameed entered this match on the back of recording hundreds in both innings against Yorkshire, becoming the youngest batsman to reach 1,000 runs for Lancashire, but the Bolton batsman struggled to kick on after a solid start, as he failed to record a half-century for the first time since the first innings at Southport over a month ago.

Shortly after Lancashire had reached 50, Hameed (26) attempted to hook Stuart Meaker, only to feather down the leg-side, forcing Ben Foakes to take a smart diving catch at 51/2. This was the first of five catches to be taken by Foakes, who played his part in Lancashire’s middle-order collapse after lunch.

Livingstone adopted his new role at No. 3 with varied success, handsomely driving Mark Footitt to the cover boundary for successive fours, before taking a nasty blow on the hand to a Meaker bouncer. Alviro Petersen assisted Livingstone to lunch with Lancashire on 79/2, finishing the session with back-to-back boundaries of his own, but both batsmen fell in quick succession after the break to leave Lancashire with an uphill struggle.

Petersen fell in the second over of the afternoon session, shouldering arms to Sam Curran when he was bowled for 17, before Livingstone departed 17 balls later, edging the elder Curran brother behind to Foakes. Having edged three boundaries down to vacant third man in the same over, Croft fell for 12 to Curran junior, who claimed the second Lancashire wicket to fall with the score on 99, with Foakes once again holding on behind the stumps.

A third wicket for the teenage Curran left Lancashire reeling on 99/5, leaving Clark and debutant Jones with the unenviably task of guiding the visitors to safety. The latter survived probing spells from the rampant Curran, as well as Meaker, who opted to test Jones with several bouncers in the same over.

Clark followed up his impressive half-century against Yorkshire with another accomplished innings, reaching a 63-ball fifty with ten boundaries to lead Lancashire out of the mire. The Lancashire all-rounder hit Gareth Batty’s first ball to the cover boundary to register a fifty-partnership with Jones, although it was Clark who accounted for the mainstay of these runs, with Jones simply providing gritty determination to his cause.

It took a stunning catch from Kumar Sangakkara at first slip to account for Clark, with the Sri Lankan legend diving full tilt with one hand to hold on after Meaker (3-83) had extracted a rare edge from Clark at 184/6. Debutant Jones then followed after digging in for over two hours for his 25 off 86 deliveries, scything a drive from Sam Curran onto his stumps 15 balls after Lancashire had lost Clark.

Lilley decided to take the aggressive route with Lancashire faltering before tea, hitting the younger Curran for four down to long-on and then for six in consecutive balls in the final over of the session to take the visitors to 211/7 at the interval. Lilley started the final session in the same vein as he had ended the previous one, taking 16 runs from Meaker’s first over with two sixes in the space of five balls.

However, Kyle Jarvis (6) fell in the next over in tame fashion to Tom Curran (2-51), chipping to Footitt at mid-off with the score at 231/8. Lilley then feathered an attempted uppercut into the gloves of Foakes off Meaker, leaving Lancashire 11 runs short of a second batting point with one wicket in hand.

An early boundary for Kerrigan ensured that Lancashire would claim the second batting point, with the visitors adding important runs for the final wicket after losing five wickets in a damaging afternoon session. Buck and Kerrigan hit six boundaries between them in sharing 48 runs for the tenth-wicket stand, before Kerrigan edged Footitt (1-56) behind to Foakes.

Surrey’s response rubbed salt into Lancashire’s wounds, with the home side reaching 50/0 in the final over of the day. A day of mixed fortunes for Lancashire was compounded by Burns (33*) reaching 1,000 first-class runs for the season, with the left-handed opener being dropped at second slip by Jones with only two balls left in the day.