This season, Surrey haven't had a happy time of things when they have lost the toss in the County Championship. So, it looked ominous when, after being inserted by Matthew Hoggard, both of their openers were back in the hutch before the shine had gone off the new ball. But a productive stand of 217 in 57 overs for the fifth wicket between Mark Ramprakash and Gary Wilson put the visitors very much in the ascendancy on day one at Grace Road.

After getting through a tricky initial half hour, during which the ball seamed, swung and occasionally leapt off a juicy pitch, Ramprakash settled in to make a mockery of the Leicestershire attack and finish with an unbeaten 179 in 255 deliveries - his 113th first-class century and the seventh of his career against the Foxes. At the other end, Wilson walked off at stumps within sight of a maiden first-class hundred. Surrey's only non-England qualified player in this match followed up the 113 he made in a one-day international last week - for Ireland against the Netherlands - with a chanceless 94 off 188 balls.

In blustery, almost autumnal conditions, Hoggard broke through twice in the seventh over. Arun Harinath, whose only boundary was a thick edge down to third man, was undone by a delivery that held its line. Four balls later, it was Tom Lancefield's turn to go leg before, when he considered leaving a ball that would almost certainly have clipped the top of off stump.

True to form, Rory Hamilton-Brown chose to make light of the conditions and go for his shots. For every drive and cut he middled, another flew fortuitously over the slips or gully. In the 17th over, when on 27, the Surrey captain was put down at point by Jacques du Toit off the bowling of Wayne White.

The next over saw Ramprakash come out of his shell for the first time, when he poked Nadeem Malik back over his head and into a boundary board just to the left of the sightscreen at the Bennett End for six. Five overs later, Ramprakash nearly decapitated umpire Neil Bainton when he drove Claude Henderson straight down the ground for four; though not before Hamilton-Brown had steered the veteran slow left-armer straight into the hands of James Taylor at forward short leg to make it 66-3.

Surrey lost just one wicket in the afternoon session when Steven Davies, driving hard, was caught at slip off the bowling of Henderson in the 40th over. Wilson, who, despite looking his usual busy self, only found the boundary twice in the 75 balls he faced before tea. But Ramprakash, who had 36 at lunch, took 116 into the second break.

In the sixth over after lunch Ramprakash helped Hoggard to the rope at fine leg to bring up an 85-ball half century. In the next over, the 36th, the former Middlesex man forced Nathan Buck over point for four and then drove the 19-year-old past mid-off for another.

Seven overs before tea, Ramprakash cut Malik to the fence at cover point to move into the nineties. Three overs later, he went to his fifth championship hundred of the season, and his first away from the Oval this year, by angling Henderson between gully and backward point for two. It took him 160 deliveries and 200 minutes.

Shortly before tea Ramprakash offered a chance on 115, but was dropped at gully by Greg Smith off the bowling of White. Five overs after the break, he angled White down to the rope at third man to overtake Graeme Hick's championship run tally of 28,776, though not before Wilson had swept Henderson for four.

In the 71st over, Ramprakash pulled White to the square leg fence before driving the 24-year-old on the up past mid-off for another four. Six overs later, Wilson brought up his second championship fifty of the season, in 120 deliveries, with a cover driven boundary off Henderson; which he celebrated by sweeping the slow left-armer for a sixth four.

In the next over, the 78th, Ramprakash posted his 40th first-class score of 150 or more. It came from 211 deliveries. Four out of the last five times he has gone past 150 he has converted it into a double century and the time before that he made 196.

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