On an abridged first day at Sophia Gardens, Glamorgan were indebted to a positive and undefeated 86 off 107 balls from wicketkeeper Mark Wallace, who compensated for the absence of Matthew Maynard (out with bronchitis) and the loss of Matthew Elliott to the first ball of the match, which saw the former Aussie opener caught at gully off the shoulder of the bat.

Despite losing the toss, Surrey’s depleted attack took advantage of an awkward surface. Heavy showers prevented play from starting until 2.30pm, but the visitors simply made up for the loss of 45 overs. The previously out of sorts Mohammad Akram finished with figures of four for 62 and Rikki Clarke, who went for 64 off thirteen, whipped up quite a bit of pace; troubling all of the batsmen other than the compact Wallace.

Hemp and Thomas put on a dogged sixty in 21 overs for the hosts’ second wicket. David Hemp could have been out to Clarke on three occasions. The first reprieve, on 11, resulted in Scott Newman, who was fielding at cover, leaving the field with a badly bruised thumb. But while Hemp somehow survived to hit 60 in 95 deliveries, including ten boundaries, Ian Thomas fell to a reflex left-handed catch by Clarke, at slip, in Nayan Doshi’s second over.

On a track that Martin Bicknell and Azhar Mahmood would have relished, Surrey also lost the services of Tim Murtagh, who suffered a side strain halfway through his ninth over – though not before Michael Powell, lunging forward, became his 50th victim in Surrey colours and Jonathan Hughes was caught by Batty, who had to dive at full-stretch low to his right to pull off a brilliant catch.

Murtagh’s replacement at the River Taff End, Mohammad Akram, struck twice in three overs. Hemp’s lazy drive resulted in him being bowled through the gate and five minutes later Robert Croft pushed at a short delivery to hand Batty a regulation dismissal.

Mark Wallace, who gave just one chance late in the day – a tricky caught and bowled low to Ormond’s left – guided Glamorgan to their first batting point of the season with an innings that must have given the England selectors a slight nudge.

His seventh-wicket partnership of 45 in six overs with Darren Thomas lifted the home side’s total from 125-6 to 169-7. But then Akram struck twice to remove the 29-year-old all-rounder, who got his pull shot all wrong when the former Pakistani opted to go round the wicket, and Alex Wharf, whose indeterminate back foot block resulted in him playing on.

Some extra bounce from Clarke saw David Harrison nibbling and then lingering for a few moments to look ruefully at the pitch. But Wallace and Simon Jones guided Glamorgan past 200 in an unbroken stand of 49 for the last wicket. The former, who had already taken one six off Clarke, then lifted the 23-year-old into the River Taff for two more maximums in the 51st over, shortly after reaching his half-century off just 63 balls.

In what is likely to be a low-scoring contest, the concession of 11 no-balls, in all, by Akram – who overstepped seven times in 13.3 overs – Clarke and Ormond could yet prove to be significant.

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