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Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Roach hails breakthrough after slow start for Surrey

by

Sports Desk
1528 days ago
20210504
Kemar Roach leads Surrey off the field after bowling them to victory over Hampshire at the Oval on Saturday.

Kemar Roach leads Surrey off the field after bowling them to victory over Hampshire at the Oval on Saturday.

LON­DON – West In­dies seam­er Ke­mar Roach be­lieves his ca­reer-best eight-wick­et haul against Hamp­shire was just a re­ward for his per­sis­tence, af­ter man­ag­ing on­ly three wick­ets from 71 overs in his two open­ing match­es of the Coun­ty Cham­pi­onship for Sur­rey.

The 32-year-old picked up eight for 40 to end with match fig­ures of 10 for 80 as the hosts crushed Hamp­shire by an in­ning and 289 runs in­side three days at the Oval on Sat­ur­day.

“I’m ex­treme­ly hap­py. I put a lot of work in for the two games I’ve played be­fore,” Roach said af­ter bowl­ing Sur­rey to vic­to­ry.

“[It was] tough work, it was a lot of overs that I bowled and I didn’t get much of a re­ward. But to come here ob­vi­ous­ly and put the ball in the right ar­eas and get eight – 10 wick­ets in the game – it’s a fan­tas­tic feel­ing.

“And to do it with a bunch of great guys, it’s even bet­ter.”

Roach, who was West In­dies’ lead­ing bowler in the two-Test se­ries against Sri Lan­ka in the Caribbean last month, found wick­ets hard to come by in re­cent weeks.

He man­aged on­ly two scalps in his first game against Leices­ter­shire at the Oval and scraped on­ly one in a heavy de­feat to Mid­dle­sex at Lord’s last week.

“As a fast bowler it’s hard work just to go out there and put the ef­fort in every day,” Roach ex­plained.

“[It] is al­ways tough on our body so to get the re­wards at the end is al­ways heart­felt. So I’m very hap­py [with my ca­reer best] and hope­ful­ly, I can do it again very soon.”

The vic­to­ry over Hamp­shire was Sur­rey’s first of the sea­son and came im­me­di­ate­ly in the wake of a bat­ting melt­down against Mid­dle­sex which led to a 10-wick­et loss in three days.

Sur­rey al­so lost their open­er to Glouces­ter­shire by eight wick­ets be­fore draw­ing against Leices­ter­shire.

Roach, who missed the de­feat at Bris­tol, said the re­sponse from the team to the Lord’s dis­ap­point­ment had been ad­mirable.

“It was fan­tas­tic. I think the guys just ob­vi­ous­ly stuck to the game plan,” said Roach, who has tak­en 214 Test wick­ets.

“I thought the game at Lord’s was a tough one to lose but I thought the guys came back, we planned well and just went out there and put the work in. We grind­ed it out right to the end and we were [well re­ward­ed].”

He con­tin­ued: “Ob­vi­ous­ly the Hamp­shire side is high on con­fi­dence. They’ve done well so far this sea­son so we know it was go­ing to be a tough game com­ing in­to it.

“It was a good toss to win and to go out there and dis­miss them for 92 [in their first in­nings] was a per­fect start and then the way the guys bat­ted was amaz­ing.

“And then to come [Sat­ur­day] and top it up and ob­vi­ous­ly bowl them out was an­oth­er big step and a good hur­dle. I am very proud of the guys. It’s on to Leices­ter­shire now and we have to car­ry this form with us.”

Sur­rey is now fourth in Group 2 on 46 points but Roach said the side would not get car­ried away.

“We’re pleased but we’re not get­ting ahead of our­selves. It’s on­ly one win but the guys are high in con­fi­dence now and hope­ful­ly, we can take it on to the rest of the sea­son.”

(CMC)


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