AFTER a blistering run in the Friends Life t20, Surrey may fear their season is taking a turn for the worse after a second consecutive loss in the competition.
Surrey's lack of prowess with the bat caught up with them against Hampshire last Friday as they lost by seven wickets at the Oval.
Having won the toss, Surrey elected to bat first but could only manage 126-6 from their 20 overs.
And executive director Alec Stewart, who has been overseeing the first team since the sacking of Chris Adams, believes Surrey need to aim for a high run rate.
"We managed to win four on the bounce through some very good bowling and good fielding," Stewart said. "The batting needs working on. I want to see players play with a more positive intent, but not a reckless intent.
"The batters know, as a group, they have got to post bigger totals, take sensible options and make sure we have a total which the bowlers then have a chance to defend.
"You have to rebuild but there are ways of rebuilding, without coming to a full stop, to still tick the scoreboard over. That is a skill in itself.
"You are going to lose wickets because it is an attacking game. We have got to make sure we take the right attacking options and don't give ourselves next to no chance in defending a total which is 30 or 40 runs light of what it should or could have been."
Zafar Ansari top scored for Surrey with 29 and new signing Kevin O'Brien scored 16 not out on his debut, but Ricky Ponting will have been disappointed to have notched just three.
Reigning champions Hampshire always looked confident of chasing the total down and did so in 18.2 overs.
Despite Azhar Mahmood (2-31) taking the wickets of both Hampshire openers and Ansari running out a further batsman, the visitors reached 127 for the loss of just three wickets.
