With Surrey beating by 53 runs the previous highest total in one-day cricket of 443 for nine, set by Sri Lanka against the Netherlands in a one-day international at Amstelveen in July 2006, Gloucestershire wilted under the most extreme form of what modern cricketers refer to as scoreboard pressure. Unsurprisingly, the browbeaten visitors' top order batting went much the same way as their bowling. After collapsing to 65-5 in the twelfth over, it was left to Mark Hardinges and Steve Adshead to bring some respectability to the Gladiators' reply, but, at no stage, was the final outcome in doubt.

James Benning and Alistair Brown laid the foundations for the Brown Caps' mammoth total, setting a new record for any wicket for their county in limited-overs cricket. Both openers passed 150, which was the first time more than one batsman has made over 150 in a domestic one-day innings. But it was Rikki Clarke who provided the icing on Surrey's cake by taking his side to within one blow of 500 with a breathtaking 82 not out off just 28 balls, six of which cleared the boundary. The innings contained a total of 22 sixes and 47 fours.

On the same pitch as the one used for the previous week's Friends Provident Trophy clash between Surrey and Kent, in which the visitors slumped to 52-7 after winning the toss, Benning watchfully negotiated Ashley Noffke's opening over, which was a maiden. However, it was not long before the holders of Surrey's three highest individual innings in limited-overs cricket went into launch mode.

In the tenth over, Brown reached his half-century in 32 deliveries, three of which, from Gloucestershire debutant, Anthony Ireland, had disappeared for six. Half a dozen overs later the 37-year-old posted his nineteenth hundred in List A cricket. It had only taken him a further eighteen balls and, as if to underline his influence over proceedings, the Surrey total at the time was 135.

The eighteenth over saw Benning and Brown go past their county's competition record partnership against Gloucestershire, Alec Stewart and Adam Hollioake's 156 for the fifth wicket at Bristol in 1998.

Eight overs later the biggest stand for Surrey against Gloucestershire in all one-day cricket - Alan Butcher and Geoff Howarth's 218 at the Oval in 1976 - was eclipsed when Brown went inside out and hit Noffke to the extra cover boundary; though not before Benning had moved to his half-century in 65 deliveries with a dab past the keeper off Steve Kirby.

With 91 runs coming from his ten overs, Kirby proved to be the most expensive bowler on show, although he was closely followed by Ian Fisher, who conceded ninety off eight.

In the 27th over, Fisher's fifth, Brown brought up his 150 in 81 deliveries and Benning struck two successive straight sixes. The 23-year-old, who hit a career best unbeaten 189 against the same opponents at Bristol last year, went to three figures in 102 balls, with a cover driven four off the stand-in Gladiators' captain Alex Gidman.

Brown, who had been given a life on 39, when he was dropped at slip off Ireland, received another in the 33rd over, when, on 170, he just managed to clear the fielder at short third man. On that occasion, Gidman was the unfortunate bowler.

In the very next over, Benning and Brown overtook Surrey's highest partnership for any wicket in one-day cricket, Ian Ward and Alistair Brown's 286 against Glamorgan at the Oval in 2002.

Brown, reverse sweeping, had the top of his off stump clipped by Marcus North's off-spin in the 34th over, but Surrey's biggest total in one-day cricket against the Gladiators - the 337 they made when losing by two runs at Bristol last season - was soon elbowed into second place when Azhar Mahmood, promoted in the order, made a quick 35.

Two balls after reaching a superb 150, Benning was caught at long-off, but with Clarke going to the second fastest half-century in Surrey's limited-overs history - in 19 deliveries (Adam Hollioake still holds the county record of fifteen balls, against Yorkshire at Scarborough in 1994) - the carnage simply continued.

When Mahmood was caught on the long-off fence off Hardinges in the 46th over, the Surrey total stood at 409. But in the next over Clarke and Batty saw the Brown Caps past their previous highest score in one-day cricket - 438-5 against Glamorgan in 2002 - and in the 48th over the hosts posted a new world record.

The visitors' reply was just six overs old when Kadeer Ali missed a flick to leg and was adjudged leg before. The next over saw Craig Spearman playing around a slower ball from Mahmood. Chris Taylor was caught at second slip off the last delivery of the eighth and when North and Gidman went in the eleventh and twelfth overs Gloucestershire were destined to finish a distant second.

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