Barring a bizarre turn of events this morning, the basement battle in Division One of the County Championship taking place at Wantage Road will go to Northants, who have shown no shortage of character since losing the toss and allowing Surrey to compile a first innings total of over four hundred.

The architect of their victory, with bat as well as ball, has been Jason Brown who followed up his 34 in 54 deliveries at number eleven with match figures of nine for 164, as the visitors were skittled out for their lowest score of the season to leave the home side to knock off 218 to win in four sessions. With just 81 now needed, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club have announced that the fourth day will be a free gate; such is their confidence.

The uninspired and at times casual manner in which Surrey approached their cricket yesterday would not have been out of place in Division Two of the County Championship, which must surely be where the Oval outfit are headed assuming they suffer their first defeat to Northants since 1995.

Opening their second innings seventy runs ahead, the visitors were three down in the space of four overs; and they could have lost a fourth an over later when Swann put down a stinging chance off Benning at second slip. Newman was leg before shouldering arms, Johann Louw then got one to cut back sharply to account for Ramprakash and Clarke prodded forward indecisively and was caught at first slip. But what should have been a battle for survival turned into a period of abject surrender, with Jason Brown picking up wickets in each of his first three overs.

Jonathan Batty shuffled across and left his leg stump exposed. Despite punching Brown through extra cover, James Benning played as if he had never played on a turning pitch before and pushed the 29-year-old off-spinner’s eleventh delivery of the day into the hands of Martin Love at silly point. Adam Hollioake was the next to perish, injudiciously attempting to mow Surrey’s tormentor over mid-wicket on one knee - at that stage there was still half an hour to go before lunch.

Azhar Mahmood and Ian Salisbury managed to hold the Northants spinners at bay until forty minutes after the break, whereupon the Pakistan all-rounder was caught at short leg off bat and pad. Salisbury, trying to play with soft hands from the crease, was taken in the same position.

Jimmy Ormond’s 46-minute vigil came to an embarrassing end and it was only because Nayan Doshi and Phil Sampson opted to hit out that the Surrey tail pushed to target up beyond two hundred.

That was never likely to be enough against such an injury-hit attack – Sampson was unable to take the field, Clarke was not risked and Salisbury was clearly struggling with an injured knee – as was underlined when Tim Roberts and Rob White put on 111 in 32 overs for the first wicket. The dominant partner was Roberts, who reached his half-century off 76 balls and fairly peppered the cover and third man boundary.

Earlier in the day, Northants’ last pair added a valuable 28 runs to take the total to 332 and their partnership to 70 in eighteen overs. Brown started the fight-back with a four and a six down the ground off of Doshi, which David Sales followed-up with boundaries either side of the wicket off Ormond after the visitors belatedly took the new ball.

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