Although it was a perfect cricket surface, neither the batsmen nor the bowlers will have ended yesterday feeling they had the upper hand; although the fact that only seven wickets fell suggests Middlesex will be happier than they might have been otherwise. The home side did well to repel Surrey’s seamers in the opening session and weathered a bit of a storm after lunch – when they lost five wickets for 48 runs in the space of sixteen overs – to hoist their total up to 319-7 by the close thanks to an unbeaten 37-run alliance between Pathan and Scott.

But, arguably, the day belonged to James Dalrymple, making only his second championship appearance of the summer. The 24-year-old’s opportunities have been limited due to the early season presence in county cricket of Andrew Strauss, but Dalrymple made sure he will not be so easily overlooked next time around by hitting 77 off 143 balls, including thirteen boundaries, against the side he took a career best 244 off at the Oval last summer; thus beating Denis Compton’s record of 235 in matches between these fiercest of adversaries.

The hosts were somewhat fortuitous to record their first fifty partnership this season for the opening stand and were even luckier to reach 100 without loss. But shortly after lunch Martin Bicknell finally gained reward for some exacting bowling by picking up two wickets in two overs.

Ben Hutton had been dropped at leg gully by Richard Clinton when he had 11, but the veteran all-rounder uprooted the Middlesex skipper’s off-stump by getting one to nip back up the slope from the Pavilion End enough to lure Hutton into offering no stroke. Bicknell then had Owais Shah caught behind for a duck in his next over, the 40th.

Tim Murtagh beat the outside edge even more regularly than the man whose shoes he seems destined to fill. The 24-year-old’s only victim proved to be Ed Smith, who was bowled by a ball that pitched on middle stump and took the top of off.

Jimmy Ormond trapped Scott Styris leg before and dismissed Ed Joyce in similar fashion, though Joyce can count himself unlucky after the slow-motion replays clearly showed the ball deflecting off the bat. But umpire John Steele saw it differently.

From 148 for five, Dalrymple and Weekes added 110 in thirty overs for the sixth-wicket. Paul Weekes may only have contributed four boundaries to the day’s proceedings, but the value of his 78-ball stay may yet prove to be incalculable.

Weekes was out trying to cut a ball too close to him and seven overs later Dalrymple, who had posted an eye-catching half-century from 88 balls with nine fours, lofted a slog-sweep to mid-wicket off Harbhajan Singh.

In the morning session, play was held up for eight minutes because a cable had become loose in Sky’s stump camera. Nineteen-year-old Chris Wright came into the Middlesex side for his first match of the summer for Melvyn Betts, who failed a late fitness test. The visitors included Graham Thorpe and Aussie signing Dominic Thornely, making his championship debut, at the expense, respectively, of Rikki Clarke and Mohammad Akram; both of whom were said to be carrying minor injuries.

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