Hollioake banks on final salvation

Surrey supporters need no reminding that this summer has been their season-from hell.

Humiliated by Ireland in the C&G Trophy, the team that won the County Championship three times in four years with such swaggering confidence are now staring relegation in the face after just one victory from 11 matches.

The only relief comes in the Twenty20 Cup. Rip-roaring entertainment and full house notices were everywhere last month as the tournament took centre stage.

Nobody did it better than Surrey, the masters of the short game, and in particular Adam Hollioake, whose mighty contributions with bat and ball helped his team win all five of their Twenty20 matches.

Surrey will salvage something positive from a wretched season if they can retain the Twenty20 Cup at Edgbaston tomorrow by beating Lancashire (Andrew Flintoff and all) in the semifinal followed, hopefully, by Glamorgan or Leicestershire in the final.

That would also provide a fitting farewell present for their former captain, who retires next month at the age of 33 after establishing himself as the prototype of the perfect Twenty20 cricketer - a brutally destructive hitter with the bat, a sharp fielder and a clever slow-medium 'death' bowler.

Win or lose at Edgbaston, Hollioake is a definite winner of a prestigious trophy. He is named today as the Evening Standard Cricketer of the Month for July, for which he collects a bronze statuette plus a magnum of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

Hollioake's Twenty20 scores were eight not out, 44 not out, 16, 65 not out and 45 not out (off 29 deliveries), while he collected 17 wickets in five games, one more than his record haul from seven games last year.

On top of that he also smashed 80 not out from 66 balls in his final match at The Oval - a National League victory over Northants which gave Surrey a chance of escaping relegation in the 45-over tournament.

Typically, for a man who has always put team before personal glory, he did not even know it was his farewell to The Oval.

"I didn't realise until somebody told me later," he said. "It felt a bid odd, but then I'm not really an emotional sort of guy, so I won't be doing any looking back and feeling sad.

"I've had a pretty good month. If we can win the Twenty20 and avoid relegation then it will have turned out pretty well, considering the horrific start we made. We've had loads of injuries but it's no good making excuses.

Things were looking dreadful a month ago but we're heading in the right direction. Winning the Twenty20 again would be fantastic. It was a brilliant day at Trent Bridge and we're expecting the same, if not better, at Edgbaston."

There was talk of trying to persuade Hollioake to delay his retirement - this week he quit first-class cricket - to lead England into Twenty20 battle against Australia next year but those people clearly did not know the man very well.

When Hollioake makes a decision it is well and truly made and he made his last September. This is his benefit year and definitely his last as a cricketer.

He will return to his family home in Perth, Australia with his wife Sherryn, their two-year-old daughter Bennaya and their two dogs to run the property company he set up six years ago. He will keep fit by playing some rugby union, definitely no cricket.

Surrey won seven trophies in the six years of Hollioake's captaincy and he said: "There have certainly been plenty of ups and downs but I wouldn't change a thing on the cricket front." The downs, of course, don't come any bigger than the tragic loss of his younger brother Ben, who died in a car crash three years ago.

The Ben Hollioake Memorial Fund benefited from the walk Adam undertook from Edinburgh to Tangiers last October and there is another event planned for this autumn.

"We are going to put on a long relay at Crystal Palace Sports Centre on October 15 and 16," he said. "The world record is 1500 but we want to try to get 4,000 along. Everyone's invited and it's for a good cause."

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