Green shoots

At The Oval this afternoon, Surrey piled up 500 plus for 5. The Lancashire bowling attack looked pretty ordinary on an, admittedly, very slow pitch.

All apart from about half an hour after tea when Freddie was bowling. Suddenly the ball started flying through and Afzaal and Ali Brown were actually forced to defend and were repeatedly hurried in their shots. In short, it looked a different game, and you got the impression that Flintoff was playing at a higher level than anyone else on parade. (Particularly Saj who bowled like a big girls blouse)

Yes, I'm probably tempting fate, and it's obviously far too soon to say for certain, but maybe... just maybe....