14 May 2015 | Cricket
Steve Davies and Jason Roy have already got into Twenty20 mode for Surrey ahead of tomorrow's Friday night NatWest T20 Blast Off, with Davies saying: "There is only one aim for us this summer: we want to lift that trophy."
Left-hander Davies smashed 115 not out from 69 balls and Roy 67 from just 39 balls to spearhead Surrey's remarkable seven-wicket LV= County Championship win against a shell-shocked Leicestershire on Wednesday. Needing 216 from 24 overs, Surrey galloped to their victory target in only 21.2 overs, with sixes and fours flying from the bats of Davies and Roy.
The pair added 145 in a mere 11.1 overs, both launching four sixes in their early blitz. Roy, of course, was the T20 Blast's highest run-scorer in 2014 with 677 from 15 innings at an average of 48.35 and an eye-watering strike rate of 157 runs per 100 balls. Roy hit 27 sixes in last year's competition and topped 50 nine times.
It was certainly good preparation for our first T20 games, said Surrey captain Gareth Batty. Both Jason and Steve have played plenty of innings like that in one-day cricket in past seasons and it also underlined that there are guys around in the English game who can really put on a show with the bat.
Surrey reached T20 Finals Day last season, but fell in the semi-final when they were beaten by 16 runs by Birmingham Bears, the eventual winners. We want to go out and entertain in T20, added Batty. We think we can put on a heck of a spectacle at the Kia Oval and hopefully we can get some great attendances here.
Batty is also looking forward to having Pakistan's left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz available for tomorrow's game against Glamorgan and Saturday's televised match against Essex Eagles at Chelmsford. Riaz has been secured just for these two games as Surrey's T20 overseas signing Moises Henriques, the Australian all-rounder, is still on IPL duty with Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Wahab's a quality bowler and we all saw how well he bowled for Pakistan at the World Cup, especially in that spell against Australia, added Batty. It's great to have him on board as our second overseas player alongside Kumar Sangakkara for these two opening games, and I'm sure he'll do absolutely brilliantly for us.
Surrey will want to get off to a fast start to this year's T20 Blast, and two games in two days gives them the perfect chance to do that. Saturday's clash with Essex, traditionally one of the strongest sides in the South Division, will provide an early pointer towards identifying who will emerge on top of this season's group stage.
It's very exciting, said Davies. We have enjoyed a lot of success in T20 in recent years and we have some iconic players in our squad this time. We can't wait to get started.