Leach denies his role model Batty to steal victory
Somerset 102 & 301-9 beat Surrey 264 & 138 by 1 wicket
JACK Leach aims to emulate Gareth Batty by adding “a sense of theatre” to his bowling, having established himself as Somerset’s first choice spinner.
But nothing the 24-year-old leftarmer does will match the drama his batting produced at the end of what he described as “the best game of cricket I have ever played in”.
Having failed to reach double figures in six previous Championship innings this season, Leach summoned up all his powers of concentration to make an unbeaten 24 amid almost unbearable tension as the third day against Surrey went into the extra half hour.
When last man Tim Groenewald, himself without a double figure score in six innings, walked to the wicket, 31 were still needed. Together he and Leach chipped away slowly at the deficit until Groenewald cover drove the winning runs.
That left Batty, whose ten wickets in the match took him to 600 in first class cricket, inconsolable. And Leach admitted his own eight victims in a memorable match had come partly as a result of studying the 38-year-old Surrey veteran.
He said: “I always try to learn from the spinners we play against and I was disappointed I couldn’t rip through Surrey’s batting in the way Batty did to ours in the first innings.
“Spin bowling is partly about the theatre you create. He has a strong action, but he is also always in the face of the batsmen.
“That’s something I feel I can add to my game. I don’t want to be too hard on myself because he is a lot more experienced than I am, but I want to improve and you have to respect someone with 600 wickets.”
Of his last wicket stand with Groenewald, which ended with them hugging mid-pitch while team-mates celebrated wildly on the home dressing room balcony, Taunton-born Leach said: “The atmosphere was unbelievable.
“It was crazy. As I was telling myself to watch each ball, there would be a ‘ssshhh’ from the crowd and you could hear the silence. Then when I played a shot the noise would start. I just had to try and stay in my bubble and ignore the tension around me.
“I knew Tim was nervous when he came out because he didn’t say much to me. I was the same when I walked to the wicket.
“We didn’t talk much during the partnership because we were concentrating so hard and only thinking about the next ball.
“There is a temptation to try and finish the game quickly in that situation, but the method of playing sensibly we adopted was working so we didn’t deviate from it
“It was a game full of twists and turns, but we were struggling for most of it. So to play a part in achieving what was a huge result for us is a great feeling.”
Leach is one of several local products in the Somerset squad the club are looking to for a rosy future. With George Dockrell no longer at Taunton, he is becoming a first team regular and believes there is a lot more to come.
“The pitches have been drier this season and that is helping me because I am getting more overs,” he said. “As the summer progresses I think they will help me even more.
“I work hard on my batting and hadn’t done as well this year as I would have liked. I don’t think it is beyond me to become an allrounder if I continue to practise.”
Surrey head coach Michael Di Venuto admitted: “That hurt. The guys all bust a gut for a desperately needed victory and just came up short.
“We didn’t enforce the follow-on because we didn’t want to bat last on that pitch. So credit to Somerset for the way they batted in chasing down such a big score.”