Hamilton-Brown hails hard graft

Rory Hamilton-Brown had no hesitation in saying that lifting the Clydesdale Bank 40 trophy is the highlight of his career, but immediately praised his Surrey side for the work that allowed him to do so.

Fittingly, Hamilton-Brown was surrounded by his team-mates when he held the prize aloft at Lord’s after Surrey saw off Somerset by five wickets with 15 balls remaining yesterday.

The 24-year-old’s path to that moment has not been straightforward. Having started his career at Surrey, he was released by them four years ago today and snapped up by Sussex where he won three limited-overs trophies.

However, Chris Adams persuaded Hamilton-Brown to follow him from Sussex and he returned to the Kia Oval as captain on Christmas Eve 2009.

If his first season in charge was forgettable, this one has been the opposite with Surrey this week earning promotion in the LV= County Championship and yesterday winning their first silverware since the inaugural Twenty20 Cup in 2003.

"(It’s the) highlight of my career, absolutely no doubt," Hamilton-Brown told ecb.co.uk.

Rory Hamilton-Brown lifts the CB40 trophy, the "highlight of my career, absolutely no doubt," the utterly jubilant 24-year-old told ecb.co.uk

However, he quickly added: “It’s not about me, it’s not about the club, it’s about the guys in that dressing room and the reward for all the hard work. The bond that we have as a group now is something special and it’s something for us to savour together.”

Hamilton-Brown led Surrey’s pursuit of 186 from 30 overs, a rain-reduced target after Somerset were 214 all out with four balls unused.

The right-handed opener was dropped on nought, by Murali Kartik at short midwicket off Alfonso Thomas, but eased to 78 from 62 deliveries before being run out in unfortunate fashion by Jos Buttler.

“It was nice to get some runs but, as I said earlier to a few people, if I hadn’t got the runs I’m sure someone else would have done,” he said. “We’ve had that sort of confidence and momentum in the side this season.”

Buttler, three years Hamilton-Brown’s junior, rescued Somerset from 79 for five with an assured 86 from 72 balls. The right-hander could have reached three figures had Jade Dernbach’s slow yorker not bamboozled him in the last over of Somerset’s innings.

“I thought our bowlers bowled really well but I thought Buttler played a fantastic innings,” Hamilton-Brown added.

“I think they were probably just below par but not a long way below par and we’d have to bat well. But we’ve had a decent formula throughout the competition and we backed our batters to do the job.”

England international Dernbach was man of the match for his 4-30 inside eight overs to finish as the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 23 in nine matches, but Surrey’s four spinners struck at least once each.

“Jade bowled fantastically, he has done, he’s been our leading wicket-taker in the competition, he’s an international-class bowler and he showed that again today, Hamilton-Brown continued.

“But the spinners have been fantastic for us the whole competition; one of five people stands up at any given time. Whoever gets given the ball stands up and it was no different today.”