Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: Rory Burns made wrong coin toss call at Edgbaston

Not for the first time on the road this season Surrey turned up at Edgbaston to find they were playing on, well …a road. One report I read referred to the pitch as “comatose”.

Warwickshire duly amassed 665-5 declared, which is now their highest total against everyone other than Durham, leaving the Oval outfit facing a draw at best.

But unlike at the start of the campaign at Chelmsford and Hove, where Roy Burns lost the toss, Surrey invited Warwickshire to bat first.

Burns’ decision was soon called into question when, in only the sixth over, the Bears’ skipper Alex Davies launched Jordan Clark over long-on for a second six.

Burns appeared to be in two minds at the toss. Perhaps he was swayed by the fact that no side had won a championship clash at Edgbaston having batted first since 2022, furthermore that Warwickshire had only once bowled out their opponents twice there last summer. Even so, it allowed the Bears to dictate terms.

Dan Lawrence’s off-spin has been much in evidence this season. The former Essex man has now sent down 142.4 overs, which is second only to Jordan Clark’s 146.3.

Lawrence produced a beauty of a delivery to bowl Beau Webster in addition to pulling off an outstanding catch low down at backward square leg to account for Sam Hain.

But with New Zealand’s Tom Latham (184) leading the way, plus Ed Barnard (177 not out) and Zen Malik (105 not out) recording personal bests, successes were few and far between with just five wickets in as many sessions being Surrey’s reward.

I was somewhat surprised that Kurtis Patterson was deemed surplus to requirements last week, despite flying halfway around the world in the hope of furthering his case for a return to Australia’s top order.

Looking further ahead in terms of the Surrey’s overseas, maybe, given there’s a glaring need for a world-class spinner to operate in tandem with Lawrence, they’ll look to play New Zealand’s Mitch Santner in the championship games that sit alongside the T20 Blast.

What makes the case even more compelling is the fact that all the four-day fixtures in June and July will be played using the Kookaburra ball, which, history has shown, promotes spin.

PICTURES: ALAMY