Latest news with #Foakes
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
In-form Foakes helps Surrey into lead against Yorkshire
Rothesay County Championship Division One, Kia Oval (day two) Yorkshire 255: Bairstow 89; Clark 3-31, Lawes 3-77 Surrey 384-7: Foakes 86, Patterson 85; Hill 4-58 Surrey (6pts) lead Yorkshire (3pts) by 129 runs with three wickets remaining Match scorecard Ben Foakes maintained his fine form with the bat by hitting 86 to fashion a solid Surrey lead in their County Championship encounter with Yorkshire at the Kia Oval. Foakes, who hit a career-high 174 not out against Warwickshire earlier this week, followed it up with another vital knock to guide the home side to 384-7 at stumps on day two, 129 in front. Australian left-hander Kurtis Patterson also sparkled on his Surrey debut with 85 but after he and Dan Lawrence fell in rapid succession, they needed Foakes – aided by the lower-middle order – to cement their advantage. Medium-pacer George Hill (4-58), fresh from recording a nine-wicket match haul in Yorkshire's previous game at Essex, was again the pick of the visitors' bowlers. Rory Burns and Dom Sibley resumed in the morning with a deficit of 209 and shaved off just another 10 runs before the skipper departed, nudging a Jack White delivery that left him into the hands of slip. That brought Patterson to the crease for the first time in Surrey colours, taking a while to settle before he unveiled his ruthless cover drive and dispatched both White and Jordan Buckingham to the rope. Buckingham was expensive, conceding two boundaries in quick succession to Sibley – who appeared nicely set at 29 until he failed to get forward sufficiently to Hill and was trapped lbw. However, Patterson was into his stride by then and advanced to his half-century from the penultimate ball of the morning session, ably supported by some wristy leg-side strokeplay from Dan Lawrence. Yorkshire might have removed Patterson on 60 soon after lunch, when he miscued a hook off Buckingham – but James Wharton, moving in from long leg, was unable to cling onto the catch. After receiving treatment for a back problem just before the interval, Lawrence still looked uncomfortable in the middle, but he stuck around for almost two hours helping Patterson to add 112. However, Surrey's momentum was dented when they lost both batters in the space of three deliveries, with Ben Coad returning for his second spell of the day to pin Lawrence in front of the stumps for 31. Hill's impact was even more immediate, removing Patterson in the same manner with the first delivery of his stint from the Vauxhall End and that left Foakes and Jason Roy to regroup as they closed in on the visitors' total. Foakes struck the ball cleanly and crisply, particularly on the leg side, while Roy employed a greater degree of brute force, punching Jordan Thompson off the back foot for four and slamming Adam Lyth into the pavilion to secure his side's first batting bonus point. The final say went to Lyth, who had his fellow ex-England opener pouched at slip for 26 in the first over after tea, but Foakes progressed past 50 for the fifth time this season with one of his looser shots, slashing White just past the slips for two. Yorkshire captain Jonny Bairstow handed his wicketkeeper's gloves to Jonny Tattersall for the final session, having sustained a finger injury, but continued to direct proceedings in the outfield. It was Tattersall who snapped up an outside edge off Foakes late in the day to provide Hill with his fourth wicket, but Jordan Clark – having almost chopped on twice early in his innings – swung the bat to reach 41 not out with a clutch of boundaries. ECB Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay. Notifications, social media and more with BBC Sport
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Foakes' 10th wicket heroics save Surrey at Edgbaston
Ben Foakes mounted a magnificent rearguard action to save Surrey from embarrassment at Edgbaston. Chasing only their second win in five outings of this year's Rothesay County Championship first division, they sent in Warwickshire only to see the Bears amass a monumental 665-5 before declaring. That left the three times champions with a match to save, but a decline to 217-5 and then 346-9 on day three left them under severe pressure. Foakes had already established a county record by not conceding a bye in Warwickshire's huge innings, which was built around centuries from New Zealander Tom Latham (184), Ed Barnard (177no) and Zen Malik (105no), the latter pair putting on 215 unbeaten. Now Foakes' fine form with the bat this season came to the rescue, making a career-best 174no. His 10th wicket stand of 158 with last man Matt Fisher (40) overtook the 130 shared between Herbert Strudwick and Bill Hitch in Birmingham in 1911, Surrey's previous best against Warwickshire, and came close to seeing off the 173 stand – best against all-comers – between Andy Ducat and Andy Sandham against Essex at Leyton in 1921. More immediately, it took the visitors to 504 all out, just failing to save the follow on but having batted so deep into the final day that a draw which had looked likely for much of the match was confirmed. Warwickshire made 15-0 in their second innings before a well-timed thunderstorm allowed everyone to go home early. Surrey took 11 points from the match – just two fewer than their hosts, which suggests the system needs revising – and are fourth in the table, 20 points behind surprise frontrunners Nottinghamshire. They have yet to find the form which has seen them dominate the competition in recent years, with victories against Yorkshire this weekend and Essex (May 23-26) at the Kia Oval now particularly important. Of most concern will be that in three matches on the road, against Essex, Sussex and Warwickshire, they have conceded 582-6dec, 435 and 665-5dec respectively in the first innings. They have been forced to follow on in two of them. It's no surprise that rival counties have been keen to spike the guns of Surrey's seam attack. That has been partly by design – they have every right to do so – but has also helped by the unusually dry weather so far this season, exposing the major weakness in the attack, the lack of a specialist spinner. Foakes admitted that it has been hard going so far. "It's not easy taking wickets on these pitches, so we have to try to work out ways to get them," he said. "There are definitely ways – you have to be creative." Looking back at the Edgbaston match, he added: "We had a job to do and just had to bat as long as possible. "Matt played really well – it helped that he's not really a number 11. "After we lost some wickets and were 210-5, it was just about trying to occupy the crease and earn a draw. "We had to bat sensibly and I guess I do bat sensibly, so that fitted my mould." With Australian batsman Kurtis Patterson not regarded as match ready – he only has two games left of his spell – Surrey sprang a surprise giving Jason Roy a first-class outing after five years, but he made only two.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Surrey face follow-on prospect against Bears
Rothesay County Championship Division One, Edgbaston (day three) Warwickshire 665-5 dec: Latham 184, Barnard 177*, Malik 105*; Lawes 2-107 Surrey 369-9: Foakes 85*, Sibley 64, Steel 55; Webster 2-69 Surrey (3 pts) trail Warwickshire (5 pts) by 296 runs with one wicket standing Match scorecard County champions Surrey face a last-day rearguard action after their heavily-depleted batting line up faltered on the third afternoon of their County Championship Division One match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. In reply to the home side's 665-5, Surrey closed the third day on 369-9, still 296 short of the follow on figure. Ben Foakes is unbeaten on 85, Dominic Sibley struck 64 and Cameron Steel 55, but while five of the top seven passed 50, none has yet emulated the three Warwickshire batters who passed three figures. The Bears' bowlers were rewarded for collective persistence after off-spinner Rob Yates jolted an apparent stalemate into life with a three-wicket burst. On a pitch which has yielded 14 wickets in three days, it's a big ask for Warwickshire to find 11 on the fourth, but their big-hearted bowling display has kept the game alive. Surrey resumed on the third morning on 98-1 and lost just one wicket in the morning session when Ryan Patel played away from his body at Beau Webster and edged to wicketkeeper Alex Davies. Lunchtime arrived with three wickets having fallen in the previous four sessions, but early in the afternoon session the portrait of batting heaven was shattered as, out of nowhere, Yates took three in six overs, Sibley, having hit seven fours in 268 minutes, departed in disbelief at his own recklessness after he was lured into a drive and sliced to backward point. Dan Lawrence then nicked an attempted cut and Jason Roy, playing his first Championship game since 2018, ladled his ninth ball to mid-wicket. Suddenly Surrey were 217-5 – still 299 short of the follow on figure, Yates' mesmeric spell was ended by Warwickshire's decision to take the new ball against which Foakes and Steel dug in to add 113 in 33 overs but another mini-collapse followed as three wickets fell for one run in 28 balls. Steel, having just smote Ed Barnard for six to post his half-century, had his leg bail clipped by Olly Hannon-Dalby. Che Simmons then struck twice – both genuine fast-bowler's dismissals. Jordan Clark tried to leave a ball but was surprised by bounce and gloved it to the keeper. Nathan Smith guided another rising delivery to leg slip. Tom Lawes inside-edged Webster to the keeper but Foakes stayed strong to the close and Surrey will look to the England player to hoover up some more time on the final day. ECB Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay Notifications, social media and more with BBC Sport
BBC News
06-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Champions Surrey under pressure at Essex
Rothesay County Championship Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day three)Essex 582-6 dec: Critchley 145*, Cox 117, Pepper 109; Lawrence 3-169Surrey 365: Foakes 92*, Burns 73; Harmer 4-83 & 9-0Surrey (3 pts) trail Essex (6 pts) by 208 runsMatch scorecard Ben Foakes defied his former county for four hours and 41 minutes but could not prevent Essex asking reigning champions Surrey to follow-on in the County Championship at one-time England wicketkeeper, an Essex academy graduate, stood resolutely while wickets fell all around him to remain unbeaten on 92 as Surrey were dismissed for 365 in their first innings, 217 runs in time around, Surrey reduced their deficit by nine runs without loss in six overs at the end of day could have been worse for the visitors. They collapsed from their overnight 109-1 to 180-6, undone by a spell of three wickets in 15 balls amid pre-lunch mayhem in which five wickets fell and the guts were ripped out of the middle Harmer led the way for Essex with 4-83 from a marathon 47 overs, 34 of them bowled in day the start of an eventful day under clear, bright skies, Ollie Pope lasted just seven balls before he was beaten all ends up by a delivery from Porter that flicked his off-bail. It ended a 103-run stand with Rory Burns for the second Smith made his presence felt with three quick boundaries off Porter but, five balls after cutting Shane Snater's first ball decisively to the square-leg boundary, he essayed a cover-drive, missed and kept walking as his off-stump went brought in Foakes, but before he could settle Surrey lost their second wicket in two balls. This time Harmer induced an outside edge off Burns' bat for a caught-behind for it became three wickets with just eight runs added as Dan Lawrence's six-ball stay ended when Harmer got one to jump up with the resultant involuntary edge deviating to Patel looked completely bamboozled by Harmer. He faced 23 deliveries from the off-spinner, barely getting near any of them, let alone scoring a run, before nudging one into the wicketkeeper's addition to his wickets, Harmer was parsimonious in terms of conceding runs, so when Foakes pushed him through the covers it was only the second boundary he had conceded in 26 scoreboard clicked rapidly when the new ball was taken with 40 runs coming from the first six overs, moving Surrey to their first of two batting points in the process, before Jordan Clark's freewheeling 45 from 88 balls was ended by reached his fifty when he edged his eighth four just wide of slip off Snater. He had put on 55 for the eighth wicket with Matt Fisher before losing his fifth partner, the recruit from Yorkshire being bowled by one from Hamer that kept Taylor joined Foakes in a time-consuming 22-over stand worth 50 runs before Matt Critchley switched ends for one over and removed Taylor with a googly. He then swapped back to his previous end to account for Kemar Roach lbw and end the innings.
Telegraph
03-04-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Ben Foakes interview: England have not been in touch since I was dropped
Nine months ago, Ben Foakes learnt that he had been dropped as Test wicketkeeper over a 10-second phone call. It remains his last conversation with the England management. 'I knew I was dropped already – just because of the way that lads were being pulled out of games,' Foakes recalls. 'You don't need a degree to work out that if you haven't been told, you've been dropped. I knew it was coming. Then I got told I was dropped. And then ever since, no contact.' He recounts the brevity and brutality of the conversation. 'I was like 'you don't need to explain anything. I know what's going on here'. And then that's it.' In an era when selectors have preached stability, Foakes's Test career has been a throwback to a more frenzied age: he has been dropped five times. For all the anguish of his axing before the 2023 Ashes, when Jonny Bairstow reclaimed the gloves, Foakes found last summer's news even more painful. 'This felt more final than the Ashes,' Foakes explains. 'Then it was like 'we've got too many players to fit in the slots – not necessarily that we don't like your skill set'. That's probably easier to accept, however hard it is to get dropped. Whereas when it's 'yeah, we're just moving on' – I think naturally, it feels like more of an ending. 'When you essentially get racked off, it's a weird position to be in in terms of motivation. I've always felt that I might still play for England and had that desire to get back in. That's always the driving force. Now, they're looking to go a fresh way. 'It's the most difficult I've experienced because, in the past, I've always felt like there was a way back, with the merry-go-round of Jonny, Jos [Buttler] and me. It always felt like you weren't out of it. I think when they go fresh start and kind of park guys, under this regime, it's quite obvious. If they back someone, they give them a good run. So I think just naturally, the way everything kind of lays out, it's unlikely that you could get another go.' Even when Jamie Smith, his friend and Surrey team-mate, missed the tour of New Zealand on paternity leave, Foakes was not summoned. Last winter, four other keepers were selected in England Test squads. Age 32, a recall is 'not on the radar.' If Foakes is right, then his career will rank among the most curious in recent English history. Over 25 Tests, he has played more in India than in England. Indeed, at home Foakes has played just six Tests – averaging 40 and hitting a terrific 113 not out against South Africa at Old Trafford in 2022. To Foakes, his strange career leaves him with an enduring frustration: he is not quite sure how to evaluate his performances. In eight Tests in India, where his keeping was often sublime on turning pitches, he averages just 18.9 with the bat: a figure that must be placed in the context of India's astounding run of 18 consecutive home series wins. In his other 17 Tests, Foakes averages 35.7. 'I feel like I've had my Test career, played 25 Tests,' he reflects. 'But within myself, I'm probably unsure because I haven't had an extended run. I'd still say there's question marks about my career. 'I just found India away quite tough. Everyone does, but I feel like that's where my career has almost been knocked on the head. International cricket is cut-throat. For a while I've known I wasn't like 'the guy'. I was the guy that came in for certain situations when conditions might be really tough. That's kind of where I sat in my head. I was almost content with that, because I knew that was how it was going to be. So I took every time I got picked as a bit of a blessing, rather than expecting it to a point, just because of the number of droppings I had.' Foakes's curse, perhaps, was that his qualities in one area exposed his comparative limitations in another. His very brilliance as a keeper led to England handing him the gloves in India. But the same conditions also showcased Foakes's struggles attacking with the bat. 'Going to India, I think that role at No 7 is quite important, because generally, you don't have many batters behind you, and with the nature of the surfaces – in your first 20 balls, you would be having to play a different sort of game. So having an aggressive batter in those conditions can be very important. But then, on the flip side, it is a really hard place to keep.' Foakes's best Test innings tended to come when he could accumulate unobtrusively, rather than worry about manipulating the strike. This template helped Foakes score 107 and lift England from 103 for five in Galle on debut in 2018, building partnerships with Buttler and Sam Curran. It helped him put on 173 with Ben Stokes to marshal a recovery from 147 for five against South Africa and make his second Test century. And it led to one of Foakes's most crucial, yet easily overlooked, innings: an unbeaten 32 to share a 120-run stand with Joe Root and clinch a five-wicket win over New Zealand in the first Test of the Bazball project. 'In places like England, it's a little bit less important to have that power hitter, because generally you just bat for longer,' Foakes explains. 'You're definitely more in before you're batting with the lower order, you have the seam bowling all-rounder behind you, so it extends your innings. 'I'm well aware the power hitting aspect of my game is my weakness. India's the place that exposes that the most.' Two years ago, Foakes admitted that 'I'm not, as you'd say, Bazball'. Yet Foakes is far from the stodgy batsman that he is sometimes portrayed. His Test strike rate, 47.2, is only 1.5 runs slower than Alec Stewart's; his overall Test average, 29.2, is just one run less than Zak Crawley's. The bulk of Foakes's Tests came under Stokes's captaincy. For all the unerring excellence of his keeping, Foakes's tempo was not always an easy fit in the side. Rather than attempt to transform his batting, Foakes sought to turn his difference into a strength; he actually scored fractionally slower under Stokes's captaincy than Root's. 'It is difficult because I've played a certain way for my whole career. If I were to go out and try to whack it against [Jasprit] Bumrah reversing it around corners, or [Ravichandran] Ashwin, [Ravindra] Jadeja doing their thing and it skidding and spinning, I think it would be unsuccessful. 'I was always like, I have to stick to my guns with how I play, while obviously freeing myself up as much as possible. The bit I came unstuck is just batting with 10, 11 and then throwing my wicket away. That's the bit I needed to improve. 'If I wasn't in India, would that have been easier – that's the question mark for me. But that's just the way it goes.' Stewart's career was marked by perennial debate about whether he should play as a specialist batsman or a keeper-batsman. Jack Russell – to whom Stewart was ultimately preferred as keeper – recently lamented that England take wicketkeepers for granted. Foakes suggests that perceptions of keepers in England differ to those in some other nations. 'I definitely think England views keeping differently to other countries. I think a lot of countries go more down the keeping route. We obviously don't do that as much, and that's just their preference.' Perhaps in no other country would Ollie Pope, who has not had designs on keeping full-time, have been selected as wicketkeeper in six Tests. Yet if Foakes would be entitled to feel that his country have underappreciated him, the same could not be said of his county. Foakes occupies an unusual position in the domestic game: as a red-ball specialist, though he aims to play more white-ball cricket this summer. Foakes's focus on the first-class game matches his county's. Since joining Surrey from Essex a decade ago, Foakes has scored 5,615 first-class runs at an average of 40.7, normally juggling No 5 with keeping. He has won four County Championships since 2018, and is an integral part of the side craving a fourth consecutive title – a feat that no side have managed since Surrey themselves in 1955, en route to seven straight triumphs. 'Red-ball is a huge thing here,' Foakes reflects. 'You want to actually go down in the history of the club and be one of those groups that gets remembered. 'If we can go on and win more, it cements us as a legacy team. You don't want to be a team that's forgotten. I think we're at that stage.'
