Walters leads Surrey to victory

A limited-overs best from Stewart Walters ensured Surrey picked up only their second win in NatWest Pro40 Division Two against Northamptonshire at the Brit Oval.

Walters finished on 91 from 83 balls out of a total of 268 for six and then snapped up three vital catches as the Brown Caps comfortably ran out winners by 63 runs with four overs to spare, despite Riki Wessels scoring a century.

The Steelbacks were reduced to seven for three early on as Matt Nicholson took the wickets of Stephen Peters and Rob White, both for ducks. Sandwiched in between, Niall O’Brien was trapped leg before wicket by Jade Dernbach for five.

Thanks to a century stand between Wessels and David Sales, the visitors recovered to 114 for three before Sales holed out to Walters at deep point for 38 in the 19th over. Then, in the next over, Lance Klusener chopped onto his stumps without scoring.

The sixth wicket fell in the 26th over when Andrew Hall (10) smashed to Walters at long on in Usman Afzaal’s first over and debutant Robert Frylinck picked up his first scalp with the dismissal of Johan van der Wath for seven.

Stuart Walters leaves the field to a standing ovation following his fine 91 against Northants

He then followed that up with the prized wicket of Wessels, who after completing his century from 85 balls holed out to deep midwicket in the 33rd over, and Johann Louw, caught at long-on for 16, to finish with figures of 3-52.

The innings was wrapped up with the final ball of the 36th over when Jason Brown was stumped for a duck off the bowling of Afzaal.

Earlier, having been put into bat, Surrey were soon in trouble when they lost opener Scott Newman for six in the second over. The left-hander looked to force through the leg side but was bowled by Louw off his pads.

The Brown Caps then rallied as James Benning and Walters shared an 89-run partnership for the second wicket which was eventually broken with the score on 100 in the 16th over.

Benning had advanced to 55 when he was surprised by a ball from Hall that kept low and gave a simple catch to O’Brien behind the stumps off a bottom edge.

Afzaal made his intentions clear with an immediate boundary but after scoring a quickfire 23 he was deceived by the flight from skipper Nicky Boje and bowled off an attempted drive.

Meanwhile, Walters went to his half-century in just 55 balls and added a further 72 runs for the fourth wicket with Jonathan Batty who fell in the 34th over to the returning Louw.

In the next over Walters fell nine short of his century when he was beaten by some late turn from Brown as he tried to force through the off-side, and Matt Nicholson was run-out for 13 in the penultimate over after a mix-up with Mark Ramprakash who was undefeated on 36.