It may only be the sixth day of the new County Championship campaign, but it is already looking as if it could prove to be an arduous one for Surrey. Heavily beaten by Yorkshire, who owed their victory to a 246-run ninth wicket stand between Tim Bresnan and Jason Gillespie, the Brown Caps ran into similar problems yesterday in their attempts to polish off Hampshire's tail.

When the visitors declared on 481-9, the hosts promptly lost both openers in the seventeen-minute passage preceding lunch. It therefore fell to Mark Ramprakash and Mark Butcher to repair the damage, which they have set about doing by combining for an unbeaten third wicket partnership that is so far worth 119 in 33 overs.

It has not been without the occasional scare, though. Shortly after rain put paid to twenty-one overs and brought forward tea, Butcher, on 21, was put down at third slip off James Tomlinson. Also, in his three overs just before the close, Shane Warne rather ominously was getting the ball to turn sharply out of the rough outside the line of the Surrey captain's off stump.

After resuming on 352-6, the visitors built upon the foundations laid on day one to rack up a commanding first innings total. Overnight, Ian Salisbury's figures were three for 58, but as his final analysis of 31-3-121-4 would suggest the leg-spinner was rounded on; in particular by Hampshire's ninth wicket pair Nic Pothas and James Bruce.

Pothas went past fifty with a cut off Salisbury, but then lost Warne to a loose shot off Jimmy Ormond which was snapped up at cover point by Ramprakash. Shaun Udal was leg before sweeping. At that stage honours were roughly even, but when Pothas and Bruce added a further 65 in eleven overs, the pendulum had swing in the visitors' direction.

Their grip on the game tightened when, in the first over of the Brown Caps' reply, Scott Newman departed to a catch low down at slip off the bowling of Dimitri Mascarenhas. Three overs later Jonathan Batty, who failed in both innings against Yorkshire, then fenced at a wide ball from Bruce and was caught behind.

It was not until after tea that tangible signs of a Surrey recovery emerged. Ramprakash hit Bruce straight up the ground for four and struck two successive boundaries behind square on the off-side off Tomlinson.

With the light worsening, Udal was given an over at the Pavilion End. But, presumably in consultation with the umpires, the visitors went back to operating with seam at both ends. It was not long before the light was offered to the batsmen, who duly accepted it, much to the disgruntlement of Warne, who kept his players on the pitch for ten minutes before the light deteriorated to the extent that a further fifteen overs were scratched off.

When play resumed, Ramprakash, on the front foot, pulled Mascarenhas from outside off stump for six and two overs later the former Middlesex man went to his half-century in 76 deliveries. With thirteen runs coming from an over of Bruce, Ramprakash brought up the hundred partnership in 29 overs, which he celebrated by clubbing Udal over long-on for his second maximum. At the other end, Butcher crunched Warne through extra cover to end the day one short of his fifty.

GO TO:

BACK TO: