Butcher puts block on New Road celebrations

7:42pm Sunday 10th June 2007

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MARK Butcher proved to be Worcestershire's Achilles' heel as Surrey held on for a dogged draw on the final day of the LV County Champion-ship Division One match at New Road.

Ironically, Butcher thwarted the home bowling attack for 191 minutes to secure the draw despite needing Ali Brown as a runner due to an injured Achilles tendon.

“They worked out a method of keeping us out there and Butch played really well. We played all the cricket, but they had the last hour.”

Gareth Batty

Former England batsman Butcher and last man Matt Nicholson dead-batted for 24.1 overs to save the game, while the Worcestershire bowling attack threw everything they had at them.

No-one worked harder for the hosts than Gareth Batty, who bowled 50 overs in the second innings alone, but the final wicket proved agonisingly elusive.

Batty, who returned match figures of 84.2 overs, 26 maidens 8-184, could not fault his team-mates for effort.

He said: "As a team we set the platform with as near perfect a batting performance as you can get and then to get 19 wickets on that wicket is a really impressive effort.

"It's really, really disappointing because we toiled like heck for two-and-a-half days and couldn't quite get the final wicket. It feels almost like a defeat, but every single person in our dressing room has worked their socks off and you've got to take huge amounts from that.

"I only got to bowl about three balls at Matt Nicholson because of the way they protected the strike and I thought, if I can get another over at him we'll be off on the road and having a beer or two'.

"They worked out a method of keeping us out there and Butch played really well. We played all the cricket, but they had the last hour."

Beginning the day on 59-1, Surrey slumped to 126-5, which left the Worcestershire faithful convinced the first victory of the season was a formality.

However, it was not to be as the visitors staged a succession of dogged partnerships, culminating in Butcher and Nicholson's match-saving effort.

Batty got the ball rolling with the first wicket of the day when nightwatchman Neil Saker turned the ball to Ben Smith at short leg. Hope then turned to belief when 75-2 became 75-3 as Steve Davies took a great left-handed catch off Kabir Ali to remove opener Scott Newman for 34.

Ali Brown only made 11 before he was snapped up by Stephen Moore at silly-point, again off Batty.

Then, for the second time in the match, Nadeem Malik produced a massive wicket when he accounted for Mark Rampra-kash, courtesy of a great two-handed catch above his head at first slip by Graeme Hick.

However, from this promising position, Azhar Mahmood, Rikki Clarke and Chris Schofield all contributed to time-consuming partnerships with Butcher as Worcester-shire gradually ran out of overs.

When Batty removed Ian Salisbury with just over 21 overs to go, it seemed like a formality but, try as they might, Worcestershire's bow-lers could not prize out the key last wicket.