WITH it's short boundaries and small pitch, Guildford has been a high scoring venue for cricket over the years.
Warwickshire choose to take advantage of winning the toss against Surrey on Wednesday morning to put themselves into bat on a flat and dry wicket under blue skies and warm sunshine, scoring a damaging 359-3 by close of play.
Having lost Gareth Batty to injury just before the YB40 match against Essex, Surrey suffered a further blow before the start of play when Steven Davies was withdrawn with a knee complaint leaving Gary Wilson to take his place (for the first time in some while for the first team) behind the wicket. Jason Roy came in and made up the numbers batting wise.
There was little to suggest the high score early on.
Whilst Surrey offered their opponents some tidy balls in the early stages through Jon Lewis and Chris Tremlett, there didn't appear to be too much happening and Warwickshire padded them away without scoring at an overly fast rate.
The score did not particularly accelerate until the two Surrey opening fast bowlers were withdrawn and replaced by Zander de Bruyn and Stuart Meaker.
Just over 40 runs were then scored off four overs, and by lunch the away side had reached a comfortable 97 for the loss of no wicket.
The game continued in the same vein after lunch and Surrey didn't turn to spin through Gary Keedy until the 44th over of the day. With the 5th ball of his first over he took the first scalp of the day. With a ball that looked to turn a little he claimed the wicket of Ian Westwood for 71, who clipped the ball onto his wicket.
A similar dismissal then lead to the dismissal of William Porterfield. This time it was Zander DeBruyn with the damage and again the ball was played onto the stumps, Porterfield departing for 11 with the score at 178 for 22 off of almost 55 overs play. Jim Troughton then took to the crease and Varun Chopra reached a deserved hundred just before tea, with Warwickshire 207-2 as the players departed.
Success again came Surrey's way just after the second break, when in the first over after the re-start Stuart Meaker bagged Troughton's wicket, again with a similar dismissal as he played the ball onto the wicket, 208-3 now at this stage.
Surrey then opted soon after to replace Jon Lewis with Jade Dernbach, who had arrived at the ground having not been selected for England. Possibly it was not the wisest decision to thrust him straight into play, his first ball went for a four and two more four's then came off the same over.
Tim Ambrose reached 50 in the final session off of 62 balls, and Surrey were left with much to think about overnight with the game already slightly getting away from them. Some quick wickets at the start of day two will be much need to drag things back their way.
