England new boy Smith hits ton for Surrey against Essex
Jamie Smith is the latest Surrey player to get an England call
- Published
Vitality County Championship Division One, Kia Oval (day one)
Surrey 248-8: Smith 100; Bosch 3-52
Essex: Yet to bat
Essex 2 pts, Surrey 0 pts
Jamie Smith produced the perfect dress rehearsal for next month's England debut on day one of Surrey's top-of-the-table clash with Essex at The Oval.
Named on Sunday morning as the only wicketkeeper in England's 14-man squad for the first Test against the West Indies a week on Wednesday, Smith struck his second century of the season.
Smith, 23, made exactly 100, with two sixes and 14 fours, as the hosts reached 248-8 on a rain-shortened day of 79 overs in south London.
Smith's heroics apart, Surrey struggled against some probing bowling by second-placed Essex, as South African fast bowler Eathan Bosch returned 3-52 in only his second appearance for the county.
Play began on time after morning drizzle but only two overs were possible before the rain returned, forcing the players from the field until after an early lunch.
Dom Sibley and Rory Burns put on 41 for the first wicket but Essex hit back to reduce the reigning champions to 100-4, with England quartet Sibley (26), Dan Lawrence (6), Burns (26) and Ben Foakes (7) the men out.
But Smith stood firm and his ninth four, crunched square, took him to 50 in 70 balls as he and Sai Sudharsan shared a stand of 70, of which the Indian youngster's contribution was 13.
The stand was broken in strange circumstances after Jamie Porter was forced off mid-over after appearing to dislocate a finger. Paul Walter took up the cause for the visitors and, just two balls later, found the edge of Sudharsan's bat, to the safe hands of Simon Harmer at slip.
But nothing was going to derail Smith from a day of destiny as, batting at four, he twice cleared the ropes on the way to a century sealed by a quickly run single.
However, he was out to the next delivery he faced, castled after missing a straight one in Matt Critchley's first over.
Jordan Clark did not stay around for long and Ryan Patel's burgeoning innings was cut short by the first ball of a new spell from Shane Snater which pierced his defence as Surrey slipped late on from 203-5.
Surrey's Jamie Smith told BBC Radio London:
"It's been a nice 24 hours. The England call-up was a nice call to receive. Getting a text asking you to ring them back is quite a nice feeling, wondering what it could be.
"It would have been nice to kick on a bit. It's probably a 300 wicket in terms of par, so we're probably a bit short. But hopefully the two guys in and Dan Worrell can get us up to a nice score. We need to eke out as many as we can on that sort of surface.
"We would have bowled too. As we showed in the last game at Worcester we are going to have to toil hard after p[laying a lot of games of cricket, but early inroads would be perfect. We hope our bowlers can turn out their best performance. We know Essex's quality and they are chasing our tails at the top of the table."
