RAMPRAKASH
AND WILSON PUT SURREY IN CHARGE by Marcus Hook
Leicestershire v Surrey 353-4.
This season, Surrey haven't had a
happy time of things when they have lost the toss in the County
Championship. So, it looked ominous when, after being inserted by
Matthew Hoggard, both of their openers were back in the hutch before
the shine had gone off the new ball. But a productive stand of 217
in 57 overs for the fifth wicket between Mark Ramprakash and Gary
Wilson put the visitors very much in the ascendancy on day one at
Grace Road.
After getting through a tricky
initial half hour, during which the ball seamed, swung and
occasionally leapt off a juicy pitch, Ramprakash settled in to make
a mockery of the Leicestershire attack and finish with an unbeaten
179 in 255 deliveries - his 113th first-class century and the
seventh of his career against the Foxes. At the other end, Wilson
walked off at stumps within sight of a maiden first-class hundred.
Surrey's only non-England qualified player in this match followed up
the 113 he made in a one-day international last week - for Ireland
against the Netherlands - with a chanceless 94 off 188 balls.
In blustery, almost autumnal
conditions, Hoggard broke through twice in the seventh over. Arun
Harinath, whose only boundary was a thick edge down to third man,
was undone by a delivery that held its line. Four balls later, it
was Tom Lancefield's turn to go leg before, when he considered
leaving a ball that would almost certainly have clipped the top of
off stump.
True to form, Rory Hamilton-Brown
chose to make light of the conditions and go for his shots. For
every drive and cut he middled, another flew fortuitously over the
slips or gully. In the 17th over, when on 27, the Surrey captain was
put down at point by Jacques du Toit off the bowling of Wayne White.
The next over saw Ramprakash come out
of his shell for the first time, when he poked Nadeem Malik back
over his head and into a boundary board just to the left of the
sightscreen at the Bennett End for six. Five overs later, Ramprakash
nearly decapitated umpire Neil Bainton when he drove Claude
Henderson straight down the ground for four; though not before
Hamilton-Brown had steered the veteran slow left-armer straight into
the hands of James Taylor at forward short leg to make it 66-3.
Surrey lost just one wicket in the
afternoon session when Steven Davies, driving hard, was caught at
slip off the bowling of Henderson in the 40th over. Wilson, who,
despite looking his usual busy self, only found the boundary twice
in the 75 balls he faced before tea. But Ramprakash, who had 36 at
lunch, took 116 into the second break.
In the sixth over after lunch
Ramprakash helped Hoggard to the rope at fine leg to bring up an
85-ball half century. In the next over, the 36th, the former
Middlesex man forced Nathan Buck over point for four and then drove
the 19-year-old past mid-off for another.
Seven overs before tea, Ramprakash
cut Malik to the fence at cover point to move into the nineties.
Three overs later, he went to his fifth championship hundred of the
season, and his first away from the Oval this year, by angling
Henderson between gully and backward point for two. It took him 160
deliveries and 200 minutes.
Shortly before tea Ramprakash offered
a chance on 115, but was dropped at gully by Greg Smith off the
bowling of White. Five overs after the break, he angled White down
to the rope at third man to overtake Graeme Hick's championship run
tally of 28,776, though not before Wilson had swept Henderson for
four.
In the 71st over, Ramprakash pulled
White to the square leg fence before driving the 24-year-old on the
up past mid-off for another four. Six overs later, Wilson brought up
his second championship fifty of the season, in 120 deliveries, with
a cover driven boundary off Henderson; which he celebrated by
sweeping the slow left-armer for a sixth four.
In the next over, the 78th,
Ramprakash posted his 40th first-class score of 150 or more. It came
from 211 deliveries. Four out of the last five times he has gone
past 150 he has converted it into a double century and the time
before that he made 196.
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