Hamilton-Brown fires warning shot

Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown has warned next season’s top-flight opponents that his side will continue to play the attacking brand of cricket that earned them promotion.

Surrey yesterday completed an innings-and-126-run demolition of Derbyshire inside three days at the Kia Oval to return to Division One of the LV= County Championship after a three-year absence.

Their fourth consecutive win, all of them emphatic, completed a remarkable late charge up the Division Two table and Hamilton-Brown is aiming for more of the same next year.

“Our brand of cricket, I think, is fantastic,” the 24-year-old told ecb.co.uk. “A few people have their doubts and issues about it. It’s there in black and white; we win games that other teams don’t win because of the way we play our cricket.

“And it’s something that we want to keep improving on and getting better at, but this is going to be the cricket that this Surrey side plays, so I hope people enjoy it and I’m sure if we keep improving and keep working hard and working on our weaknesses, we will be a force to be reckoned with.”

Surrey’s winning run started with a 10-wicket victory over Leicestershire at Grace Road and continued with a 333-run triumph over promotion rivals Northamptonshire at Wantage Road before a 109-run defeat of Essex at Chelmsford last week.

The skipper admitted the sequence of games - broken by two Clydesdale Bank 40 fixtures, the latter a semi-final win - had taken its toll but was well worth it.

“Pride is a huge emotion at the minute,” he said. “What we’ve come through, especially the last four or five weeks as you say, has been absolutely immense.

“And to turn up session after session knowing you need to win every session to have a chance, to have to win every four-day game - which if you look at most teams winning four doesn’t happen very often - it’s been emotionally pretty draining.

“But the rewards are there and we’ve got the rewards. I just think it shows the mentality we have and the camaraderie we have in the dressing room.”

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