All posts by h716a5.icu

Members of the media praised midfielder Granit Xhaka for his brilliant final day contribution on what could be his final game for Arsenal.

Arsenal stroll to victory

The Premier League side missed out on their first league title in nearly 20 years, with Man City beating them to the punch, but that didn’t stop Mikel Arteta’s side from putting on a show as they thrashed Wolves this afternoon.

Arsenal didn’t take long to open the scoring, with Xhaka scoring inside the first 12 minutes and netting another one just a few moments later.

The Switzerland international’s multiple final day goals come as a fairytale, specifically because he could well be leaving this summer for Bayer Leverkusen according to multiple reliable sources.

The Bundesliga side are pushing to secure a deal for Xhaka and today’s comfortable victory over Wolves may be his last ever appearance for Arsenal.

Supporters were filmed singing his name during and before kick off, with the 30-year-old’s strikes today putting the cherry on top of a sweet potential farewell for him.

Members of the media fittingly paid tribute, with journalists Sam Dean (The Telegraph) and Buchi Laba (Wazobia FM, Kenya) saying this on the Swiss:

Weighing in on the praise for Xhaka, other reporters had this to say, with Simon Collings of The Evening Standard drawing attention to the fact Arsenal paid just £13 million to originally sign the player – a figure some would consider a steal.

Who is Granit Xhaka?

Signed from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2016, Xhaka has gone on to amass nearly 300 appearances for the Gunners in all competitions.

Xhaka is also a hero at international level, becoming a centurion with Switzerland, yet reports suggest he has now played his last game in north London.

If Leverkusen secure a summer deal for him, they could be getting a player of both real quality and experience.

Harbhajan Singh has made a call against using rank turners in the three-match Test series between India and New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Sep-2016Harbhajan Singh has made a call against using rank turners in the three-match Test series between India and New Zealand. He said there may not be any long-term gains in winning matches in three days, with the batsmen being short-changed and the spinners unable to get a proper assessment of their skills.Speaking to in Delhi, where the New Zealanders played their only practice match ahead of the Kanpur Test, Harbhajan believed a surface offering excessive help to spinners could backfire on India.”I can tell you if we go for rank turners, it can boomerang on us like [in the] World T20 in Nagpur. Mitch Santner and Ish Sodhi could prove to be a handful,” he said. “But if we can produce sporting pitch where our batsmen can score 400 runs if batting first, New Zealand can’t beat us. Man to man, we are a better unit. Even if we prepare sporting tracks, we can win 3-0.”Teams coming to the subcontinent would expect to be put under pressure by the turning ball, but in the most recent series in India, South Africa found themselves playing on pitches that misbehaved even on the first day. Nagpur received an official warning from the ICC for the surface that was prepared for the third Test of that series. It ended in three days with 33 of the 40 wickets taken by spinners and no one making a fifty.”Are we gaining anything by winning inside two and half to three days?” Harbhajan asked. “Are we also being fair to our batsmen who struggled against South African spinners during last home series?”You can get wickets but there are times when the bowler doesn’t even know where the ball will land and which direction it goes. You don’t know which one would turn and which one would jump. That’s why I am stressing on good pitches where skill comes into play.”Harbhajan also sympathised with the Indian fast bowlers when conditions are such that “you need spin in the first hour”.”People criticise Ishant [Sharma] for having played nearly 70 Test matches [72] with barely 200-plus [209] wickets. But has anyone cared to find out how many overs Ishant had bowled in India? And how many overs with new ball and how many with old one which reverses?” Harbhajan said. “And why Ishant has not bowled much is because of having such wickets where you need spin in first hour. If he doesn’t get to bowl with the new ball when the seam is hard and new, then we are being unfair to Ishant, who is such a workhorse. If we can make a statement of intent in this series, it will only help us when we travel abroad next time.”I believe both Anil [Kumble, the India coach] and Virat [Kohli, the Test captain] are positive people, who would like play on good Test pitches, where the results are decided on fourth evening or by fifth day post lunch session.”

Journalist Graeme Bailey has revealed Tottenham Hotspur could announce Arne Slot as their new manager but there may be an issue with paying his compensation fee.

How much will Spurs pay for Arne Slot?

There has been plenty of speculation in recent months about who Spurs will look to bring in as a new coach as well as a new sporting director.

Some reports, such as a recent story in the Mirror, suggest a new manager will only come in once that other important position has been filled.

If that's true, then it sounds as though Tottenham could be potentially prepared to make two major appointments in the next week or so.

Indeed, while talking on 90min's Talking Transfers, Bailey claimed that Feyenoord manager Slot could be "confirmed" soon.

However, he did warn that Daniel Levy is being asked by the Dutch club to pay around £10m to get the deal across the line and this could yet to be a stumbling block

The journalist explained: “He has a release clause which doesn't kick in till next season, which is £6m million. And Spurs we have to pay more than that to get him out.

"Now we discussed before the show that they don't mind spending millions upon millions of pounds on even League One, Championship, or lower league foreign players. But when it comes to managers, they will not pay.

"So from what we're being told around £10m is what Feyenoord are looking for, something less than that.

"But yeah, it's getting to that stage now where Sllot could be confirmed this week. That's what we're hearing – Spurs not confirming it just yet."

Will Arne Slot end up at Spurs?

You could argue that the most important person at a football club is the manager. With that being the case, it certainly doesn't make sense for Levy to refrain from paying a decent fee to get the right man in.

After all, he happily spent an initial £12.5m on Djed Spence last summer and the right-back has only played 41 minutes of football for Spurs since then before being loaned out.

With that in mind, if Feyenoord are demanding around £10m for Slot, even if he will be available for £6m the following summer due to his release clause, it seems like a reasonable price to pay.

Many fans will no doubt hope Levy sees sense and gets this deal across the line. If not, Tottenham may come to regret their chairman's stingy nature.

Scotland batsman Calum MacLeod has credited a return to form to technical adjustments made during a winter of off-season training with his county side Durham

Peter Della Penna17-Aug-20162:06

‘Off-season technical work gave me confidence’ – MacLeod

Scotland batsman Calum MacLeod has credited a return to form to technical adjustments made during a winter of off-season training with his county side Durham. MacLeod’s 103 in a win over UAE on Tuesday was his third ODI ton for Scotland and first since 2014.”It’s been a year without a hundred for Scotland so to get a monkey off my back in putting in a winning performance again, I’m really really happy personally,” MacLeod told ESPNcricinfo after the win in Edinburgh.MacLeod had an outstanding 2014 for Scotland, beginning that January by scoring two centuries at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand including a Scotland ODI record 175 against Canada. He ended the year in solid form as well, notching 116 not out in a win over Ireland at Malahide in September.However, 2015 was a nightmare for MacLeod. A pre-World Cup tour to the UAE to play fellow World Cup participants Ireland and Afghanistan in a desert tri-series netted three runs in five innings opening the batting. Things didn’t get much better at the World Cup either. He scored off one ball in his first 12 deliveries of the tournament, registering two ducks along the way to complete a string of four noughts in six innings that began in Dubai.After being Scotland’s second-highest scorer in New Zealand a year earlier at the Qualifier, with 401 runs in eight innings, he ended the World Cup with 50 runs in six innings. He struggled at the World T20 Qualifier back on home soil later in the summer too, finishing fifth in the team in runs with 114 from seven innings and a best of just 29.That form slump carried to Durham as well. In 2014, MacLeod was Durham’s leading scorer in the NatWest T20 Blast with 358 runs at 44.75 including two fifties. On the back of the World Cup drought, he made 210 runs at 21.00 in the T20 Blast while his County Championship form went south too, finishing with 161 runs in 13 innings at 14.63 with a best of 44.”After the World Cup and the season that followed as well, I got myself into some quite bad habits,” MacLeod said. “Last winter I went away and worked quite closely with the coach for quite a lot of the winter, Jon Lewis down at Durham, and we did some really interesting work.”It was amazing how small a change I think I had to make to get back to scoring runs. It felt, and it looked when we did some video, that a lot of the time I just wasn’t set. My trigger [movement] wasn’t in and it was that simple, that I was doing it too late. So I was trying to bat when I wasn’t even ready to bat.”MacLeod started to show signs of turning things around in January during the tour of Hong Kong when he top-scored with 58 in the first ODI. He struggled a bit more in the subsequent T20s and wound up only playing in one of Scotland’s three matches at the World T20 in India.However, MacLeod continued to plug away upon returning to Durham and the results have been showing. Working his way back into the first team he scored an unbeaten 105 on July 18 in the 2nd XI one-day cup against Northamptonshire, his third 50-plus score in four games in the competition. On July 29, he motored to 83 off 50 in the T20 Blast against Derbyshire before scoring Tuesday’s century against UAE.”Changing such a simple thing and just getting it in earlier for me, it gave me the time and the confidence started to flow when I scored more runs in the early part of this season down at Durham and continued it the whole way through. So it’s been a nice reward of some hard work in the winter away from games.”Scotland have two more home ODIs in September against Hong Kong to end the summer. They’re also now just one point behind Netherlands after eight games in the WCL Championship. Scotland’s remaining WCL Championship fixtures through 2017 come against Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Kenya and MacLeod says the series against Hong Kong is a good opportunity to continue building momentum in an effort to overtake Netherlands on the WCL Championship table next year.”We spent a bit of time in Hong Kong during the winter,” MacLeod said. “We didn’t play our best cricket so I think the guys will be really fired up to give Hong Kong a good showing and show them what we can do. If we play as well as we played and field as well as we have then I see no reason why we can’t come away with two wins.”We want to win the tournament and I think it’s going to be based on performances like we’ve done in the last two games. We don’t want to do it based on other teams losing games. There won’t be a game that we won’t go into without this attitude to go and win the game and take it forward. Obviously there’s some big games coming up. It’s just a case of finding a way to win those really.”

Adam Zampa or Jon Holland may soon fly to Sri Lanka to replenish Australia’s spin stocks after Steve O’Keefe suffered an injury to his right hamstring on day three of the Pallekele Test match

Daniel Brettig Pallekele28-Jul-2016Adam Zampa or Jon Holland may soon fly to Sri Lanka to replenish Australia’s spin stocks after Steve O’Keefe suffered an injury to his right hamstring on day three of the Pallekele Test match.In a bad sign for his prospects of being fit in time for the second Test in Galle next week, O’Keefe was unable to complete his 17th over before leaving the field, and did not re-emerge for the remainder of the day as the hosts motored to a substantial lead.The young batsman Kusal Mendis prospered in O’Keefe’s absence, and said the lack of a spinner turning the ball away from the bat was a big advantage. “He proved he was the biggest threat to the right-handers,” Mendis said. “The injury to O’Keefe is a setback to Australia for sure.”O’Keefe’s injury is not only tactically troubling but also a logistical problem for the Australians: MRI equipment required for scans is not available in Kandy, meaning he will have to travel to Colombo for full assessment of the injury. Even if O’Keefe is a chance of recovering in time for what is likely to be a sharply turning wicket in Galle, the tour selectors Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann may see fit to fly in one of Holland or Zampa.”I feel sorry for Steve, he’s one of my good mates and to see him injure himself I’m not sure where he’s at, but to see him go off the field and for Australia to lose a vital member of our bowling attack is a pretty big loss for us,” Lyon said. Asked about whether he might need spin support in Galle, he said: “I’m confident in my own skill to get the job done, but I don’t pick and choose the team.”Of the two spin bowlers, the legspinner Zampa has spent more recent time around the Australian limited-overs team, and is currently playing in the Caribbean Premier League. Holland, a left-arm orthodox bowler, has impressed in all his recent opportunities for Victoria, including a pivotal role in their Sheffield Shield final victory over South Australia. He is currently in Brisbane with Australia A.For Lyon, the day’s events took some gloss away from the achievement of claiming 200 test wickets, making him the first Australian offspiner to do so. He had struck early in the day with the wicket of Angelo Mathews, caught off bat and pad, but had to wait another several hours before the 200th victim arrived, Dhananjaya de Silva beaten in flight and pushing a catch to mid-off.”I’m very proud of it, but in saying that it probably hasn’t really sunk in yet in the middle of a pretty hard Test match,” Lyon said. “I’ll look back at it at the end of this Test match or the end of the series and look at the achievement. But I can’t wipe the smile off my face, that’s for sure, it’s been a pretty good ride so far, hopefully there’s a few more to come.”

Arsenal and manager Mikel Arteta will be offered the chance to sign PSV Eindhoven star Xavi Simons, according to reports.

Who could join Arsenal this summer?

The Gunners' hopes of sealing a first Premier League title in nearly 20 years have all but vanished after their dismal 3-0 home defeat to Brighton last Sunday.

Mathematically, there is still a possibility of Arsenal pipping Man City to top spot, but the Blues are firmly in pole position and have a chance to secure their third-successive domestic crown with victory over Chelsea this weekend.

City's imperious form saw them batter European heavyweights Real Madrid to book their place in the Champions League final, with all signs suggesting they're favourites for the title as things stand.

As a result, it could now be imperative for Arsenal to get summer transfer preparations underway for next season, with Edu and co believed to be targeting central midfielders, additions in defence and signings further forward.

West Ham star Declan Rice is believed to be a prime target with Ligue 1 duo Lois Openda and Jonathan David on their radar for the attacking areas.

Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi is also attracting interest with Arteta keen to reinforce his defence, especially after William Saliba's injury arguably hampered their recent form.

As well as the aforementioned players, Arsenal could be handed the chance to sign PSV Eindhoven star Simons, according to a recent report.

This information comes courtesy of The Mirror, who claim the Gunners will be offered him in the next transfer window. The 20-year-old has been in mightily impressive form for PSV, clocking 16 goals and nine assists in the Eredivisie alone.

Simons' run has earned him call-ups to the Netherlands national team this season, and while Paris Saint-Germain have a buy-back clause of £10 million, they've so far not made an approach – opening the door for Arsenal to make their move.

Arteta is apparently on the look out for emerging talent and Simons has caught the eye of major clubs across Europe.

Who is Xavi Simons?

The attacker, who can play in midfield and further forward, is a player of huge potential – scoring 19 goals and registering 12 assists in all competitions over 2022/2023.

Simons has also been tipped for superstardom by former Spurs and Real Madrid star Rafael van der Vaart in an interview with Voetbal International (via Mundo Deportivo):

"When I look at his potential, I see that he can become the best soccer player in the world,” said Van der Vaart."Believe me: In a few years we'll all be saying: 'It's good to be able to have this kid in our national team."

Misbah-ul-Haq has called on his batsmen to rise to ‘their biggest challenge’ of competing in English conditions, to give a powerful bowling attack enough runs to put England under pressure

Andrew Miller07-Jul-2016Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, has called on his batsmen to rise to “their biggest challenge” of competing in English conditions, to give a powerful bowling attack – that looks set to be led by the returning Mohammad Amir – enough runs to put England under pressure.Misbah, who led Pakistan to a 2-0 series win in the UAE in their last campaign against England, praised the manner in which his team has gelled in the six years since the controversies of their 2010 tour.However, he emphasised that a series win in England was the “point they had to prove” to draw a line under the spot-fixing scandal that tarnished their image on their last visit to Lord’s.”This is the biggest challenge for us in a long time,” Misbah said during the Investec Test series launch at Lord’s. “This is the best chance for us, and me as a captain, to perform here especially in these conditions. That’s the point we have to prove.”To perform in England, Australia, even South Africa, these are the tours where you really develop your team. The 2010 tour, I think, was a tough tour, but guys like Azhar Ali did well in tough conditions and situations, and that makes you a better player.”Pakistan’s exhaustive preparations for this series have included training camps in Lahore and at the Ageas Bowl in Hampshire, prior to a satisfactory first outing of the tour against Somerset this week, in which Younis Khan and Azhar both made hundreds, and Asad Shafiq chipped in with a brace of half-centuries.Either side of those performances, Amir impressed with three top-order wickets while legspinner Yasir Shah – who is also making a comeback after serving a three-month suspension for a doping violation – showcased his form with two wickets.”That’s a fact that, whoever comes from Asia in these conditions, the batting really has to stand up,” Misbah said. “If you can put good scores on the board, the Pakistan seam attack is good, and we’ve got the best spinner at the moment who’s really bowling well. We really have to stand up as a batting unit and give them good scores, and we are capable of doing well against them.”Throughout their preparations for the series, Pakistan have treated the England tour as the culmination of a long campaign to restore their image, and Misbah praised the extent to which his players had bought into that vision. With Mickey Arthur installed alongside him to add extra discipline as a coach, the signs are promising in the lead-up to the Lord’s Test.’This is the best chance for us, and me as a captain, to perform here especially in these conditions. That’s the point we have to prove’ – Misbah-ul-Haq•Getty Images”I think we’ve done really well in the last six years and all credit to the players,” Misbah said. “We’ve understood what was going on with the Pakistan team at that time, and they responded really well in terms of performances, roles and especially, their off-field behaviours. It’s about restoring that image for Pakistan and, as a whole, it’s quite satisfying.”The focus will doubtless be on Amir come the first morning at Lord’s, and though Misbah conceded he had not initially been in favour of his recall following his five-year ban, he insisted he was now fully supportive of his reintegration, not least because it was what Pakistan’s fans wanted for their star bowler.”Obviously those are decisions not in your control,” Misbah said. “More importantly it is the fans and how they reacted, they wanted to see him back playing and so they [the PCB] made the decision with the support of the ICC. So we are there to support him, everyone wants to see him playing again.”Plenty has been said and written about the reception that Amir, and Pakistan as a whole, will receive when they take the field next Thursday, but already Misbah was blocking his ears to the off-field noise.”Honestly speaking, I don’t care about these things,” he said. “Personally I focus on what’s going on in the middle, and how [Amir] performs when he bowls, that’s what we are looking for.”He’s got the best chance to prove himself out in the middle, and he doesn’t need to worry about what’s happening with thousands of spectators saying something. He just has to focus on what’s going on in the middle.”I think he’s bowling really well even on flat tracks in T20 cricket, one-day cricket, four-day cricket,” he added. “His pace is there, he’s swinging the ball, he’s got all the tricks to get batsmen under pressure. But one more thing is that he’s more mature. He wasn’t that mature at that time [in 2010], but that maturity can help him now.”On the subject of maturity, Misbah himself conceded his slight concern that, at the age of 42, this campaign may yet prove to be a bridge too far for, arguably, Pakistan’s most influential captain since Imran Khan – and scores of 0 and 19 in the tour match at Taunton were inconclusive. Nevertheless, he insisted he was eager for the challenge, and that in itself would help to get him through.”That’s what you always really fear,” he said. “But when there is no hunger, there’s no need to play.”

Manchester United are in the market for a new striker this summer following Cristiano Ronaldo's premature departure and now a new potential transfer target has been identified.

What's the latest on Goncalo Ramos to Man United?

According to The Mirror, Manchester United are plotting a record bid for Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos.

As per the report, the Red Devils are set to initiate contact with the Portuguese club in an attempt to secure the services of their goal-scorer this summer and a deal of up to £100m including add-ons is set to be tabled to tempt Benfica into selling.

Would Goncalo Ramos be a good signing for Man United?

There is no doubt that the highest priority for Erik ten Hag during the transfer window will be bringing in a prolific finisher and consistent goalscorer after struggling to find the perfect focal point in the centre-forward position since Ronaldo's exit.

Indeed, Wout Weghorst was brought in to help boost the goal contributions back in January, however, the 30-year-old has largely been ineffective in his role with only two goals scored so far, whilst mainstay Anthony Martial has been less than inspiring with seven scored.

As a result, the signing of Ramos could be the perfect opportunity to bring in a young talent who is hungry for goals and is already an understudy of Manchester United's former superstar.

During the World Cup in Qatar, Ramos was given the opportunity to step into the striker role to replace Ronaldo for Portugal against Switzerland in the round of 16 and put on an emphatic performance, scoring three goals in the 6-1 victory to lead his team to the quarter-finals of the competition, becoming the youngest man to score a World Cup hat-trick since 1962.

Over 27 Liga Portugal appearances, the 21-year-old – hailed "remarkable" by Gary Lineker – has scored 17 goals, registered two assists and created four big chances, as well as averaging 1.3 shots on target per game, proving that he is a consistent performer in front of goal beyond his World Cup achievements.

Ramos has deservedly been the recipient of high praise for his incredible goal-scoring form, with former Portugal international Rui Aguas claiming the young player is stronger than Ronaldo:

"(Ramos has made) a huge leap. (He has) clear potential. Physical, technical, a guy who plays in the air like you don’t normally see nowadays. He’s very complete and he participates defensively. He is the player I most identify with since I stopped playing.

"Goncalo is stronger (than Ronaldo), because he fills much more space. He is a player with incredible mobility."

With that being said, if Man United can secure the signing of Ramos this summer, it could significantly boost their goal contributions, putting them in a great position to compete for trophies and dominance in the Premier League.

Chelsea would "100,000,000%" love to sign Harry Kane in the summer transfer window, according to Sky Sports reporter Dharmesh Sheth.

Is Kane on the move this summer?

The 29-year-old has enjoyed a legendary playing career to date, admittedly not winning any trophies but breaking so many individual records. On Saturday, he scored the only goal in Tottenham's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, meaning he is now second in the all-time Premier League scoring charts, having recently been called "world-class" by Graeme Souness.

Kane's current Spurs deal runs out at the end of next season and it could be that he wants a new challenge this summer, with the north Londoners continuing to struggle. Chelsea have been linked with a move for the Englishman, but Manchester United are also thought to be strong contenders to snap him up.

The Blues are badly in need of a signing an elite striker before the start of next season, with Kai Havertz leading the way with only seven league goals in 2022/202 to date.

Could Chelsea make audacious swoop for Kane?

Speaking to Give Me Sport, Sheth was in no doubt that Chelsea would jump at the opportunity to acquire Kane's signature in the summer:

"Would he want him? 100,000,000%, Mauricio Pochettino would want Harry Kane. But we’ve got to look at this from the Tottenham and Harry Kane side. Tottenham do not want to sell Harry Kane."

There is no doubt that Chelsea would surely be ecstatic to sign Kane, but in truth, it is tough to see him choosing them, especially given the rivalry that exists between the Blues and Spurs. Not only that, but the west Londoners can't promise him Champions League football, whereas United look highly likely to be able to.

For that reason, the thought of Kane in a Chelsea shirt has to be considered little more than a pipe dream, as things stand, with United surely the red-hot favourites to snap him. That is assuming he wants to leave Spurs, of course, and Daniel Levy is unlikely to make it easy for his most prized asset to leave the club.

Whoever does potentially sign the £200,000-a-week striker will be getting arguably one of the best attacking players of his generation, with 276 goals in 432 Spurs appearances a stunning return, as well as a record 55 strikes in 82 caps for England. If the Blues suddenly won the race, it could be an absolute game-changer for them moving forward.

Glamorgan ran through Surrey for 93 at the Kia Oval to set up an eight-wicket victory in the NatWest Blast

David Hopps26-May-2016
ScorecardTimm van der Gugten celebrates one of his four wickets on the night at the Oval•Getty ImagesSurrey are the gold standard for English professional cricket as far as Twenty20 is concerned: crowds that fill the Kia Oval are the norm, they are the richest county in the country, the embodiment of off-field success. But the story on the field is not so pretty. They will point to two Finals Days in three years but as they crashed to defeat in their first NatWest Blast home match of the 2016 season, they were abysmal.Championship cricket has dominated the past six weeks and this match pitted Surrey, bottom of Division One, against Glamorgan, similarly bereft in Division Two – six matches each and not a victory between them. The Blast was an opportunity for release and it was Glamorgan, unfashionable Glamorgan, who gained it by dismissing Surrey for 93 before they waltzed to a predictable eight-wicket victory with 7.4 overs to spare.The Oval crowd took its punishment quietly. Perhaps we will know that T20 cricket in England matters when they boo on nights like this. Glamorgan, meanwhile, have travelled to south London in T20 four times and won every one, including a county record 240 for 3 a year ago.Gareth Batty, Surrey’s captain, told : “We have not covered ourselves in glory. In T20, a bad day can be really bad. So scratch it off and move forward. I don’t think it is a time for getting too carried away.”Fortune also turned against Surrey. Ben Foakes was injured in the pre-match warm-up – struck on the elbow by a stray ball from Stuart Meaker. Then Azhar Mahmood’s involvement ended prematurely when the Blast’s elder statesman, at 41, propped forward to his second delivery and damaged a calf badly enough to play no further part, unable even to bat with a runner which is still allowed in English domestic cricket. A long lay-off looks likely.Glamorgan achieved their win by just doing the basics. The surface was a little grabby, and their decision to throttle Surrey with old-fashioned virtues of back-of-a-length consistency worked a treat. Timm van der Gugten, a Netherlands pace bowler via a birthplace in Sydney, emerged with 4 for 14, his dismissal of Steven Davies and Kumar Sangakkara in the space of three balls setting the tone. He found it a bit of inswing, but when he said: “I thought we bowled well as a collective,” he summed it up.Stardom? Not on a night like this. Jason Roy was back at the Kia Oval in T20 colours for the first time since England reached the final of World Twenty20. No longer was he an exciting south London upstart beginning to forge an international career. Now he had recognised quality and debates were taking hold about whether he could even develop into a Test cricketer – and if so why on earth is he batting so low in the order for Surrey in Championship cricket?But Roy 2016 vintage looked unsettled. Shots were mistimed, the pitch not suiting him, and his early forays were unconvincing. He was only 15 when he tried to manufacture a big shot over the off side against Michael Hogan, skewed it off the bottom of the bat to extra cover and Colin Ingram, back in Glamorgan’s side after injury for the first time this season, held a difficult catch pedalling backwards.Consolidation is not in Roy’s nature. Neither is it the T20 way espoused by England which is further encouragement for him to keep playing his shots. But, in the World T20, England had Liam Plunkett or Adil Rashid at No. 11; Surrey, once Foakes had withdrawn, had Mahmood at seven. Perpetual attack needs sound surfaces or batting depth, or preferably both, and Roy did not have the advantage of neither. He will undoubtedly take out his frustration on somebody soon.Roy’s dismissal was all the more damaging because it was the third Surrey wicket to fall in eight balls. Van der Gugten, had taken two wickets in the previous over, having Davies caught off an attempted leg-side flip by a craftily-positioned deep square leg, and then defeating Kumar Sangakkara’s advance to drive courtesy of a fast catch above his head by wicketkeeper Chris Cooke.It was not the sort of night, as delightful as it was to see it, for Zafar Ansari to make a return from a second thumb injury that has disrupted his career: he made a second-ball nought, edging Craig Meschede’s overpitched ball to the wicketkeeper. Many in the 15,500 crowd were just coming in; Surrey statisticians must have been toying with walking out, 37 for 4 after the six-over Powerplay already leaving their victory chances strikingly low.And it got worse. Sam Curran showed pizazz for a while, but on 21 pulled Meschede to midwicket where David Lloyd took a skilful low catch and, although Curran delayed – politely enough – in the hope of a TV umpire adjudication which would have improved his chances of survival, the umpires chose to believe the evidence of their own eyes. Van der Gugten later found a little inswing to complete his foursome, bowling Gary Wilson as he shuffled across his stumps and having James Burke, Foakes’ replacement, lbw third ball.Glamorgan’s chase was a non-event. Surrey did not go for broke with attacking fields, and an opening stand of 58 settled the game as Jacques Rudolph stroked it around with quality and Lloyd struck powerfully over the leg side. Ingram announced his return from injury by battering Mathew Pillans’ first ball over long-on for six. It was very much Glamorgan’s night.