A superb 189 not out from 146 balls by James Benning very nearly carried Surrey to one of the most amazing one-day victories in their history. Needing to score 340 in fifty overs to beat Gloucestershire, the Brown Caps lost wickets at regular intervals. However, Benning, paying no heed to the possibility of defeat, carried his bat to make the third highest score ever by a Surrey batsman in limited-overs cricket. In partnership with Neil Saker he put on a club record 57 for the last wicket, but, sadly, the pair fell agonisingly short of seeing their side home as the hosts held their nerve to win by two runs.

When they set-off in pursuit, the odds seemed stacked against the visitors, who had not successfully chased over three-hundred in one-day cricket since April 1996 (when, coincidentally, they did it against Gloucestershire) and who needed to set a new county record highest score batting second to win. After three overs they had 26 runs on the board. Unfortunately the wickets column read two, with Jonathan Batty driving Carl Greenidge to first slip and Mark Butcher having played on to his first ball before Scott Newman stopped the rot.

The eighth over, bowled by David Brown, went for twenty runs and contained Benning's second pulled six. Two overs later the 23-year-old posted his fifty in just 28 deliveries. However, his next fifty took him 62 balls as he watched Newman flick Greenidge to short fine leg, Alistair Brown caught at short mid-wicket and Rikki Clarke succumbing at mid-off to a slower ball from Alex Gidman.

When Stewart Walters was caught at mid-on nine overs later, the final nail looked as if it had been inserted into Surrey's coffin. But then Benning collected three fours behind square on the leg side in four deliveries from Brown to go to 128 in the 34th over. Still, 104 off sixteen overs with just four wickets remaining was a big ask, which grew even larger when Tim Murtagh flicked the ball to mid-wicket and was run out after being sent back.

Ian Salisbury and Nayan Doshi departed in successive overs, though not before Benning had reached 150 off 119 balls with an on driven six off Gidman, whom he pulled for another maximum in the 44th over. As Saker grew in confidence at the other end the momentum was with the visitors going into the final over, off which eight was required. The first ball saw Benning take a single to mid-on. That appeared to be a mistake until Saker drove Greenidge's third ball through extra cover for four. Another dot ball made it three needed off two, but then communications between the Brown Caps' last pair broke down and Saker was run out by yards. Both were deflated.

Earlier, with an incredible 63 not out off 26 balls by Brown upstaging a wonderfully constructed 108 in 85 deliveries from Ian Harvey, the home side racked up their highest ever one-day total against first-class opposition. Brown, whose only other first team appearance for Gloucestershire was against Leeds-Bradford UCCE, came to the wicket in the 44th over after his side had lost four wickets in as many overs. He started nervously, scoring five singles from his first ten balls, but then dealt in nothing but boundaries, clubbing seven fours and five sixes as the hosts crucially culled 69 off their last four overs.

The 23-year-old took fourteen runs of the last three deliveries of the 47th over, which was bowled by Murtagh, and then launched Saker over cover for his second maximum. The penultimate over saw him hit four more boundaries, including a six over mid-wicket. Brown then completed the innings with two straight sixes off Salisbury - the first of which took him to his fifty in 24 balls - and an on-driven four to further rub salt into Surrey's wounds.

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