The rain clouds forecast to descend upon Chelmsford by early afternoon stayed away and, so, without any hindrance, Surrey cruised to their second championship win of the season. What was more remarkable, however, was that it was the first time the Oval outfit had been victorious at the county ground since 1950. In other words, prior to their run of seven championships in the Fifties and before, even, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The visitors’ performance was crowned by an impressive five for 82 from Jimmy Ormond, who polished off almost the entire Essex top order. Will Jefferson was the first to go, leg before in the fourth over, to give Ormond his 300th first-class wicket.

Jefferson was followed precisely six overs later by Paul Grayson who, having square driven a couple of fours off the former Leicestershire man, glanced him into a diving Jonathan Batty’s left hand glove.

Following nine overs of resistance, Andy Flower was sent back by a brute of a delivery from Azhar Mahmood, which followed the left-hander enough to catch the face of his bat on its way through to the wicketkeeper.

Darren Robinson was then adjudged leg before. The 30-year-old’s body language suggested he was far from happy with umpire Burgess’s evaluation, though. It was a pity, for Robinson had played sensibly and deserved more for his labours than 41 off sixty balls.

But James Foster survived a confident lbw shout early in his innings to provide able support to Aftab Habib. Foster made 42, but it was Habib – who top scored with 61 off 101 balls – who caught the eye with his off-side strokeplay, much of it at the expense of Azhar.

The wicket of James Foster spelled the beginning of the end for the home side. After adding 119 for the fifth wicket in two hours with Habib, the former England wicketkeeper was pegged back in his crease by none other than Ormond.

Ronnie Irani then nudged a low catch to forward short leg off the bowling of Saqlain Mushtaq and Aftab Habib gloved a vicious bouncer to the keeper. Three wickets had fallen in three overs and, at 205 for seven, the state of the game had changed considerably.

The second ball after tea accounted for Jon Dakin, who edged Saqlain to second slip after being done by the flight. Ian Salisbury’s 249th and 250th championship and first-class victims in Surrey trim came when the leg-spinner completed the rout with two wickets in two balls.

Jimmy Ormond, whose first-class haul for the season is now stands at 26 wickets, bowled twenty-two of the 62.2 overs Surrey needed to dismiss Essex. But with Alex Tudor out for at least another fortnight and Martin Bicknell aggravating the dislocated finger he sustained in the draw with Leicestershire, the 25-year-old could well be shouldering the burden for the foreseeable future.

Bicknell’s injury was sustained, at fourth slip, whilst attempting to take a low edge from James Middlebrook off the bowling of Ormond just before tea.

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