Shortly after tea yesterday it seemed that Gloucestershire might just end the opening day with some sort of foothold in this game. Thorpe, Brown and Batty all went in quick succession – two of them to the bowling of Mark Hardinges – but then Azhar Mahmood and Martin Bicknell wrestled the initiative back with an unbeaten and increasingly entertaining seventh wicket alliance that has so far harvested 136 in 25 overs.

In the first two sessions it was all Surrey, who won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that appeared to hold little encouragement for the bowlers. Had Steve Kirby not conjured up the wicket of Scott Newman, who feathered a ball angled across him in the 31st over, the visitors would have gone into lunch totally unscathed, albeit that Newman had a let off when he was dropped at mid-on on 76.

Things continued in much the same vein between lunch and tea as the Gloucestershire attack ran out of ideas in the process of being carted for 154 runs. It must have been all the more dispiriting that almost as quickly as Surrey left the door ajar they slammed it in their opponents’ faces again.

Yesterday was only the seventh time in history that Surrey have had six half-centurions in the same innings; and only the second occasion since the Second World War. The fifth and sixth were Azhar Mahmood – who picked up where he left off in the Twenty20 Cup by clubbing an undefeated 88 off 91 balls – and Martin Bicknell, who brought up his first ever fifty against the Nevil Road outfit with a sweetly timed four straight down the ground off the last ball of proceedings.

But Azhar’s brutalisation of the Gloucestershire attack will probably be at the forefront of their minds when they take the field today. After securing maximum batting points for his side in the 98th over, the Pakistan all-rounder launched James Averis for a straight six. The day’s penultimate over saw him pulling Kirby over the rope at mid-wicket and, in the last over, he landed Averis in the top tier of the pavilion.

For many, the form of Graham Thorpe was high of the day’s agenda. After making just 33 runs in his previous six championship innings, the England left-hander reached double figures for the first time for his county since the opening match of the campaign by pulling Kirby for two fours in an over.

Two overs later, immediately after flicking the former Yorkshire paceman to the boundary at backward square leg, Richard Clinton was out edging low to the wicketkeeper’s left. But upon his re-introduction Kirby was on-driven for two boundaries by Thorpe, who went to his half-century in 75 deliveries with a pull for four in the same over, the 57th.

By that time, however, Rikki Clarke had gone to a catch at deep cover off Averis, so it was left for Jonathan Batty to keep Thorpe company through to tea, just before which the Ovalites’ keeper posted an attractive 68-ball fifty.

Thorpe has never scored a championship hundred against Gloucestershire and perhaps that was at the back of his mind when he resumed after the tea interval on 72. He was cleaned up when a quicker ball from James Averis squeezed between bat and pad. Three overs later Hardinges picked up the wicket of Alistair Brown with one that nipped back and almost immediately afterwards Batty was out cutting.

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