RAMPRAKASH PUTS SURREY IN FRONT by Marcus Hook
Surrey 362 & 195-3 v Derbyshire 334.

With all three outcomes still possible, it promises to be an interesting final day at Whitgift School. Surrey will go into it with a lead of 223 runs and hopes of moving up to joint second in Division Two should they win. But if Derbyshire triumph, they will go top with five matches to play. The key wicket for the visitors will be that of Mark Ramprakash, who has a 108th first-class hundred in his sight.

Day three began with Pedro Collins finding the edge of Chris Rogers's bat, however it fell just short of Stewart Walters at second slip. But three deliveries later, the Derbyshire skipper went caught behind. That brought Wavell Hinds to the crease. The West Indian benefited from four overthrows before driving the very next delivery low to Chris Schofield at backward point. Two overs after reaching a 92-ball fifty, Greg Smith was out to a superb catch by Jonathan Batty, in front of first slip, to give Andre Nel his second success of the morning.

Dan Redfern announced himself by despatching Collins to the rope at extra cover and Derbyshire picked up their first batting point in the 55th over - in which Nel overstepped on three occasions. When Freddie Klokker lost his middle stump to Jade Dernbach four overs later, the visitors were 209-6, still 153 runs away from parity, but they were hauled out of trouble by a 106-run stand in 23 overs between Redfern and Graham Wagg.

Wagg struck three sixes before lunch. The first was off Collins, when he picked the West Indian left-armer up over wide long-on. Six overs later, he hit Schofield straight down the ground and then deposited Matthew Spriegel's first ball of the day over the rope at long-on.

Derbyshire were 279-6 at the break, with Redfern on 36. Wagg brought up his fifty, in 44 deliveries, when he slog swept the fourth ball after lunch, bowled by Spriegel, for four. In the 81st over, Nel was prompted to take the new ball when Wagg scythed the last delivery with the old cherry to the boundary at backward point.

The next over saw Wagg pull Collins for six, but, attempting to repeat the stroke, the ball got too big on Wagg, who skied a catch to Ramprakash at mid-on. With Tim Groenewald being beaten for pace by Nel in the next over, Steffan Jones departing caught behind four overs later and Nantie Hayward being cleaned up by Dernbach, Redfern finished with a commendable 55. The 19-year-old had batted for 163 minutes, faced 117 balls and struck seven fours.

At tea, Surrey had extended their lead to 89, thanks to Jonathan Batty and Michael Brown. In the third over of the hosts' second innings, Batty cover drove a no-ball from Wagg for four before cutting Hayward for six over third man four overs later. But in the second over after the interval, Jones had the Surrey stumper snapped up at slip.

Brown and Ramprakash kept the scoreboard ticking over with well taken singles and twos, but it took Ramprakash 46 deliveries to register his first boundary, which came when he swept Wagg's slow left-arm spin for four. Freed from his shackles, the former Middlesex man then pulled Groenewald for four before hitting Wagg over the headmaster's tent and into Nottingham Road.

By that time, Brown, who was on 15 when he was put down at slip off Redfern in the sixteenth over, had brought up a 99-ball half-century. But in the 42nd over, attempting to cut Wagg, he was caught at the wicket by Klokker for 56. Two balls later, Walters departed in similar fashion, edging to his opposite number at slip.

Mark Ramprakash and Usman Afzaal saw Surrey through to stumps without any further mishaps. Ramprakash finished with an unbeaten 76, while Afzaal, who also deposited Wagg into Nottingham Road, ended day three with 21.

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