GILLESPIE AND BRESNAN TAKE HONOURS ON RUN-FILLED DAY by Marcus Hook
Surrey 237-5 v Yorkshire 594-9d.

On a day packed with runs, though not, until the last twenty-five minutes at least, wickets, Jason Gillespie and Tim Bresnan's 246-run stand in 62 overs for Yorkshire took the batting honours in spite of a dashing hundred from Scott Newman plus an undefeated 92 from Mark Ramprakash for the hosts, who ended the second day in a spot of bother - 357 runs adrift of their opponents with half of their first innings wickets intact.

Gillespie and Bresnan established the fifth highest ninth wicket partnership in first-class history. A year to the day since his unbeaten double century in the Chittagong Test against Bangladesh, Gillespie struck an unbeaten 123 off 192 balls. At the other end, Bresnan recorded a maiden hundred - 116 in 214 deliveries. But as the sun sank behind the OCS Stand, perhaps the most significant act of the day was Adil Rashid's picking up of four vital wickets for nine runs in the space of 15 balls.

With Surrey needing 445 to avoid the follow-on, Newman and Ramprakash weathered the early loss of Jonathan Batty, who was caught at third slip off Matthew Hoggard in the seventh over of the reply. Surrey's second wicket pair combined for 196 in 44 overs.

If there is one place you should not bowl to Newman it is short outside the off stump. Whenever the Yorkshire bowlers erred in length, the 27-year-old left-hander invariably clipped them to the third man boundary. He reached both his half-century and century by employing the cut stroke. The first milestone arrived in 81 deliveries. Just 53 more balls were needed for Newman's first hundred against the white rose county.

With Ramprakash picking up where he left off last season, it seemed as though the second day was drifting towards a predictable conclusion that had Newman and Ramprakash booked in for breakfast with tons to their name, but the 19-year-old Rashid envisioned a quite different conclusion to events.

In the 51st over, Newman miscued him to mid-on. James Benning, who had an almighty heave first ball, which missed everything and went for four byes, never settled and was trapped leg before. With six minutes to go, Surrey's nightwatchman Nayan Doshi, was beaten in the flight and Alistair Brown was caught at slip off a perfect leg-break to plunge the home side into even deeper trouble even though Ramprakash was still there.

In contrast to Rashid, Surrey's two spinners each conceded over a hundred runs earlier in the day as Bresnan and Gillespie batted through the entire opening session. Both reached three figures shortly after lunch. The Australian celebrated his 32nd birthday by posting his century in 190 mins off 162 balls, with 17 boundaries. Gillespie achieved another remarkable record in that his innings was the highest in Yorkshire's history by a number ten batsman (the previous best being 115 not out by George Hirst against Gloucestershire at Bristol in 1894). Bresnan reached his hundred with a straight six off Doshi. It had taken him 248 minutes, 204 balls and 11 fours to add to his solitary maximum.

Doshi opened his 2007 account after the muscular 22-year-old helped himself to some insipid fare from Chris Schofield, who was the only Surrey bowler not to trouble the batsmen at any stage during Yorkshire's mammoth total of 594-9 declared; their second best total ever against the Brown Caps.

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