Sangakkara fires Surrey to Lord’s final with sparkling one-day ton
Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara struck an imperious century as Surrey edged past Nottinghamshire by four runs at the Kia Oval yesterday to book their place in the final of the Royal London One-Day Cup.
Sangakkara top scored for the hosts with 166 – the highest knock in English one-day cricket this season – as Surrey posted 300-5 from their 50 overs, an innings which included 13 fours and a six. Nottinghamshire retaliated after slumping to 16-3 as Greg Smith amassed a century of his own before falling for 124, although his efforts proved to no avail as the visitors fell agonisingly short on 296-7.
Teenage seamer Sam Curran returned figures of 2-54 from his 10 overs and had Nottinghamshire reeling at 1-2 after claiming the early wickets of opener Riki Wessels and former Zimbabwe international Brendan Taylor.
Surrey will now face Gloucestershire on Saturday 19 September, which will be the London club’s first Lord’s final in four years.