The second day of Surrey vs Essex at the Oval began with the toss, after the first day had been washed out, Surrey winning the toss and fielding. Alastair Cook and Jaik Mickleburgh found the going reasonably easy to start with, prodding runs off a fairly strong attack. The "highlight" of the morning being Zafar Ansari giving himself a concussion. Cook played a drive through point, Ansari misfielded it, but managed to chase it down to the fence and slid, only to carry across the wet outfield and into the advertising boards head first. There was about a 10 minute delay as he was revived and led off the field, he would take no further part in the game. The 50 came up in the 16th over, Cook looking particularly strong, before he played a horrible pull to Matt Dunn, which looped into the gloves of Steve Davies for 39, 67-1. Jade Dernbach soon got the 2nd, Mickleburgh edging to Graeme Smith at slip, 85-2. Around lunchtime, the rain came and dumped a bucketful on the ground, delaying us for a couple of hours.
The post lunch fight was led by Westley and Bopara, the pitch looking good, but with something in it for the seamers with the amount of the rain that had been around. The lack of Ansari (and with 3 keepers and Smith himself) the lack of change bowling became clear when Jason Roy came on as the fifth bowler in the 38th over. Matt Dunn returned to break the partnership in a cracking over, accounting for Westley (caught by Burns close in) and Greg Smith (edged to Wilson at 2nd slip) for a duck as Essex slumped to 126-4. The pace slowed up further as the bowlers kept the scoring in check and were rewarded when Meaker blasted one through Ben Foakes to snare him for 22. Bopara and James Foster brought up the 200, and Bopara was looking in good nick for a decent score, but was then strangled down the leg side by Roy for 49. Play ended soon after with Essex 225-6 in 78 overs, a draw looking the likely result.
