Ed Joyce and Jamie Dalrymple wrote their names in the history books by setting a new partnership record for Middlesex’s fifth wicket against Surrey, and in the process put their side on course for a sizeable first innings lead. Their 298-run alliance, which was spread over four and a half hours, overtook Patsy Hendren and John Human’s 285 at The Oval in 1935. Joyce’s innings of 123 lasted 225 balls and included fifteen boundaries. But it was Dalrymple, who would have been withdrawn from this match had England discarded Andrew Strauss, who finished undefeated on 182 off 234 deliveries, including 29 fours, and deserved all the plaudits.

By the close it seemed hard to believe that the second day had begun very differently. Jimmy Ormond has not exactly hit his straps this summer. Prior to this encounter the former Leicestershire man had the rather timid early season tally of four championship wickets at an average of 84.25, but his opening spell of eight overs brought him three victims for the price of eighteen runs. With Bicknell accounting for the dangerous Owais Shah – scorer of two half-centuries in the corresponding fixture at Lord’s – the home side made an immediate impact, taking three wickets in the space of 26 deliveries.

Sven Koenig, fending, went in the second over of proceedings. Five balls later Shah padded up and was adjudged leg before, then Ben Hutton steered Ormond into the midriff of Adam Hollioake at second slip. Ed Joyce soon found his feet, however, and in partnership first with Weekes and then Dalrymple, he helped guide the visitors past Surrey’s first innings total of 359.

Paul Weekes’s only boundary came when he top-edged an attempted pull off Ormond over the slips for six. In the next over, the 28th, Joyce took three boundaries off Bicknell, but then Weekes departed to a shot that suggested he too wanted to throw off the shackles. Apart from Jamie Dalrymple surviving a chance at shoulder height to second slip when he had made 41, the home side did not get another sniff for seventy more overs. Even then it required Rikki Clarke to pluck the ball, one handed, out of thin air at square leg to give them their fifth success.

Joyce reached fifty in eighty deliveries. Dalrymple posted his in exactly 100 balls by cutting Ian Salisbury to the boundary. He needed just fifty more to complete his first championship hundred for Middlesex and precisely fifty balls again to bring up his 150. Ed Joyce went to three figures in 171 deliveries in the 77th over, which also saw the former Oxford University student twice punch Tim Murtagh through mid-on as the two hundred partnership was raised in 48 overs.

Having put on 152 in 31.2 overs in the middle session, which suffered the loss of half an hour’s play due to a light shower, Surrey turned to James Benning immediately after tea. But after bowling only nine deliveries he was forced to withdraw and was replaced in the field by Chris Thompson, who used to go to school just over the road from the Brit Oval and is now a club cricketer for Guildford. However, word has it that, on Sunday, Benning will make way for India’s left-arm quick Zaheer Khan, who was put through his paces on one of the practice strips by Geoff Arnold after bad light had lopped off the last ten overs of the day’s play.

GO TO:

BACK TO: