Surrey cruised to their first away victory by an innings in two years yesterday by demolishing Hampshire for the second time in as many days. At the height of their powers, around the dawning of what has now been dubbed the Noughties, the ‘bovver’ boys from South London won matches by an innings or in less than four days for fun almost. In 1999 they chalked up three innings victories in the County Championship. The following season witnessed four. Then things started to dry up. Not since early May 2003 have they taken apart a home side with such calculating precision.

The win lifts Surrey, perhaps for just a day, to third place in the Division One table going into the mid-season break for the Twenty20 Cup. It was their ninth consecutive championship victory over the Southampton-based outfit. The final act was characterised by some wonderful fielding, brilliant at times, from the visitors who held all of their catches, even the ones it did not seem possible to take.

The only change to the refrain was that it was Mohammad Akram who did most of the damage rather than Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan still left his mark on proceedings, though, by claiming two magnificent catches which accounted for Michael Brown at backward square leg in the twelfth over and Shane Warne, one-handed, in the second over after lunch. Almost fittingly, the fourth over following the interval saw wicketkeeper Jonathan Batty apply the coup de grace by taking a one-handed catch of his own.

Trailing by 215 runs on first innings, Hampshire were promptly re-inserted and immediately went into freefall. Their inexperienced line-up, which was missing Kevin Pietersen and is much the poorer for having Craig McMillan in place of Simon Katich, were simply not up to the task of making the visitors bat again, let alone saving the game.

Jimmy Adams and Chris Benham both got out to the bowling of Jimmy Ormond inside the first four overs. Once Brown was also out of the way, Mohammad Akram took over from the former Leicestershire man at the Pavilion End and made an instant impact thanks to some added lift.

McMillan attempted to use the bounce to his advantage and targeted the third man boundary. But Tim Murtagh, who was on the field temporarily while Ormond was changing into a dry shirt, covered almost twenty yards to take a sensational, soaring right-handed effort.

John Crawley was the only Hampshire batsman to show any defiance. He was particularly unforgiving towards Dominic Thornely, who retired from the fray with his tail between his legs after conceding 21 from three overs. The former Lancashire and England batsman struck thirteen boundaries in his 62-ball 67, but it all ended in tears when Crawley recklessly charged down the wicket to the last delivery of Harbhajan’s second over.

The second ball of the Indian’s third over saw Nic Pothas brilliantly caught by Rikki Clarke at leg-slip, and Greg Lamb and Sean Ervine had both departed the scene, to catches in the slips, before lunch arrived after the 30th over.

After the match Graham Thorpe, who led Surrey throughout for the first time in his career, said of Murtagh’s defining catch to dismiss Craig McMillan: “You’re not going to see a better catch than that all season. For me the X-factor was our fielding. Normally if you get your fielders to get you one wicket in an innings you have done well. Today was freakish.”

Thorpe added: “We felt we had to win this game to get back into the championship and we are now in not a bad position at this stage of the season in the top three. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a captain because it kept me involved in every session but as a batsman I have not been striking the ball as I would have liked. This is something for me to sort out but I am not mentally bothered about it. I knew it would be hard when I came back from South Africa. My body does not always respond, but I have worked hard and am doing as much as I can. If I turn the corner, that would be fantastic. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I’m pretty relaxed about it.”

Indeed, Thorpe has now made just 33 runs in six first-class innings for Surrey. But that will matter little if this victory sets his county up for a dominant assault when the second half of the championship season resumes with fixtures against Gloucestershire and Kent.

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