Last night, the fragility of Surrey's confidence was cruelly exposed by Glamorgan, who opened their Pro40 League campaign with an easy 78-run victory - their first success in the competition for two years. Having won the toss and been restricted to 76-4 in 23 overs, Tom Maynard and Mark Wallace took the initiative with a 109-run partnership for the fifth wicket that left the Brown Caps looking broken. An abundance of fielding errors underlined the size of the task now facing Surrey's team manager, Alan Butcher, who cannot remain in the job for much longer if there are many more displays as inept as this one. The visitors were not helped by injuries to Chris Jordan (calf) and Chris Schofield (right thumb), which left Mark Ramprakash no choice but to turn to his part-time bowlers just as the Dragons were looking to accelerate, but for Surrey to have mustered just 138 in reply was simply deplorable.

Things started to go awry for the Brown Caps when Usman Afzaal was introduced in the 24th over, replacing Schofield who had been getting some turn. Maynard pulled a loose full toss over long-on for six and drilled the next delivery back past Afzaal for four. Amazingly, Afzaal was given a second over before Jordan was recalled, but the 19-year-old pulled up lame after bowling one further ball. Schofield completed the 28th over, after which he too went off to receive treatment.

In the next over Maynard flicked James Benning to the fine leg boundary for four to bring up a 53-ball half-century. Wallace then hit Jason Roy for two off-side boundaries after which it seemed that every time the ball went near a Surrey fielder a gaffe was about to occur. Unfortunately for Alan Butcher, the television cameras were on him when the ball went underneath Jade Dernbach, on the straight boundary. Suffice to say, the Surrey manager appeared to be somewhat exacerbated.

In the 32nd over Maynard was run out by Roy, attempting to complete a second run. But thanks to a one-day career best of 85 off 80 balls by Wallace, 62 runs came off the last eight overs of the Glamorgan innings. In the 36th over the 26-year-old wicketkeeper launched Matthew Spriegel over long-on for six and repeated the dose four overs later when he swung Dernbach over mid-wicket. The only moment of relief for the visitors came when the dangerous Robert Croft was run out for just nine by Ramprakash. But Croft was yet to leave his mark with the ball.

In reply, the Brown Caps lost Scott Newman to the second delivery. Benning and Ramprakash then got the innings back on track, but their partnership of 39 in just six overs came to an abrupt end when Benning, caught in two minds by Jason Gillespie, had his middle stump flattened. Ramprakash departed in the very next over and, thereafter, it became a procession.

Croft picked up the wicket of Afzaal with his first ball, Jonathan Batty, sweeping, then lofted the former England off-spinner to long leg and when Schofield danced down the pitch to Darren Cosker in the 22nd over Surrey were 90-6 and it was all over bar the shouting.

Spriegel, who made an unbeaten 44 off 72 balls, batted intelligently, until, that is, he called Pedro Collins for a second run only to leave him stranded. In the meantime Jordan had perished on the mid-wicket rope, Roy had gone caught behind first ball and Dernbach had been stumped trying to hit Jamie Dalrymple into next week.

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