HAVING witnessed two Surrey batting collapses in the Gloucestershire match, there was a worrying sense of déjà vu last Sunday when Surrey slumped to 135-6 against the Bangladeshis.

But, thankfully, Matthew Spriegel came to the rescue, abetted by Stuart Meaker, who followed up his career best 5-48 against Gloucestershire with his highest score to date.

However, let's focus on Spriegel, who, don't forget, made his unbeaten 108 against an international attack. In 2008, Alan Butcher's final term as Surrey's manager, Spriegs appeared in nine out the last 10 championship matches.

Since then he has only been handed a further eight championship starts and, on occasions, has been forced to bat out of position. Given the frailty shown by Surrey's middle order in three of the opening four championship matches this summer, the case for batting Spriegel at seven is growing in strength.

Steven Davies has started the season in superb form, but in the Gloucestershire match he ran out of partners in the first innings and resorted to hitting out in the second dig to avoid the same thing happening again.

That is not how Surrey should be employing their second best batsman. Far be it for me to tell Chris Adams his job, but swapping Spriegel for Schofield at number seven for the Middlesex match has to be the way to go.