Tom Lawes’ triple strike jolted Warwickshire’s progress against Surrey in a 2025 County Championship game at The Oval.
Surrey, on the hunt for a fourth consecutive County Championship triumph, started the ongoing round of fixtures – the third last in this year's itinerary – nine points clear of Nottinghamshire in second.
Warwickshire won the toss, opted field and bowled Surrey out for 246 inside two sessions of fast-paced action. Later in the day, Warwickshire recovered from Lawes’ triple-wicket burst to finish day one at The Oval on 132-4. At the crease are Will Young (35 after being dropped on 10) and Ed Barnard (48).
Dan Worrall had started the slide for the visitors by having Rob Yates caught at slip. Lawes then claimed an eye-catching 3-6 across five overs. With fast, swinging balls, he trapped Alex Davies, Sam Hain (first ball), and Zen Malik leg-before to reduce them to 47-4 before Young and Barnard weathered the storm.
Lawes was regularly clocked in the high-80s mph – a marked difference from his previous work where he has tended to bowl in the low-to-mid 80s. Lawes' three wicket-taking deliveries were clocked at 85.1mph, 87.4mph and 85.7mph respectively.
It follows a Hundred campaign where Lawes was an ever-present for Andrew Flintoff's Northern Superchargers side that qualified for the knockouts. Lawes took eight wickets at 21 in The Hundred and caught the eye with his increased speeds but his performance against Warwickshire was his sharpest in first-class cricket so far.
Lawes is already highly regarded by England management. Only 22, Lawes had debuted for Surrey in all three formats in the summer of 2022, the same year in which he played unofficial “Tests” for the England Under-19s. He had also toured India with the England Lions in 2023/24, where he bowled 15 wicketless overs in his only innings in an unofficial “Test” against India A.
Lawes has taken 86 first-class wickets at 27.35 so far in his first-class career. He has endured two slightly quieter summers in 2024 and 2025 but was a key figure in Surrey's title-winning campaigns in 2022 and 2023, taking a combined 60 wickets at 20.53 runs apiece. He is likely to be an England Lions tourist once more this winter when England's second string side travel to Australia.
Earlier in the day, Surrey had reached 104-1 as captain Rory Burns (52) and Ollie Pope (50) put on 97 for the second wicket after Davies won the toss and opted to field. However, all five Warwickshire seamers struck at least once each to restrict Surrey to 246. Of the visiting bowlers, Nathan Gilchrist (3-51) was the only one to take three wickets.
Match 102, Surrey vs Warwickshire
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Ryan Patel remained unbeaten on 72 for Surrey, off only 67 balls. Barring the second-wicket stand, the only other fifty-run partnership came for the ninth wicket – 58 between Patel and Matthew Fisher.
Despite their efforts, Surrey fell four short of the 250-mark and thus missed out on the first batting bonus point, while Warwickshire came off with all three bowling points. However, Surrey have picked up their first bowling point.
