RAMPRAKASH
SETS ANOTHER RECORD BEFORE MIDDLESEX DIG IN FOR A DRAW by Marcus
Hook
Surrey 490 & 207-3d. Middlesex 324 & 189-3. Match drawn.
By following up his 223 with an undefeated 103,
Mark Ramprakash set yet another batting record yesterday. He has now
recorded two centuries in a match more times than any other batsman
in the County Championship. But, despite giving themselves a minimum
of 85 overs to dismiss Middlesex a second time, Surrey could only
pick up three wickets before the protagonists shook hands on a draw
at 5.00pm.
But the outcome of this contest had been apparent
long before then. Having been set 374 to win, Andrew Strauss and
Scott Newman set their stall out before lunch by showing no
intention of chasing down the target. Neither opener experienced any
real dramas. Newman pulled Jade Dernbach for four in the twelfth
over and, three overs later, caused umpire Richard Kettleborough to
take evasive action when the former Surrey opener swept Gareth Batty
to the rope at square leg.
Resuming on 47-0 after the break, under an even
murkier sky, the visitors showed a little more purpose. Strauss
immediately took his side past fifty before ending the first over
back with a pulled four off Chris Tremlett. Five overs later, Newman
cut Batty, who had switched to the Vauxhall End, to the rope at
cover point.
The introduction of Usman Afzaal's slow left-arm
spin gave the left-handers something to ponder. Indeed, it seemed a
strange decision by Rory Hamilton-Brown to give him just nine overs
before settling on a combination of Dernbach and Batty, neither of
whom troubled the batsmen particularly.
That said, Batty accounted for Newman with a
lifting delivery in the 33rd over and Dernbach's perseverance was
rewarded when he had Strauss driving to short extra cover - a carbon
copy of his dismissal in the first innings - shortly before tea; the
England captain finishing with 61 off 156 deliveries, including
seven boundaries.
The only deed of note after tea came when Afzaal
returned to capture the wicket of Dawid Malan, who was caught at
deep mid-wicket three overs from the conclusion.
Earlier, Surrey batted on for a further eight and
a half overs until Hamilton-Brown was caught at the second attempt
by Strauss at short extra cover off the bowling of Pedro Collins,
though not before Ramprakash became only the second batsman in
Surrey history to hit a hundred and a double-hundred in the same
match - the other being Scott Newman, who made 117 and 219 against
Glamorgan at the Oval in 2005.
With Middlesex opting to spread the field the
Brown Caps' third wicket pair had difficulty finding the boundary.
In the third over of the day, Ramprakash drove Tim Murtagh through
the vacant slips area for four. Three overs later, Hamilton-Brown
hit successive boundaries when he drove Steven Finn straight up the
ground and then top-edged a pull over the wicketkeeper's head.
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