Yesterday, a match that will live as long in the memory as an edition of the Channel 4 programme ‘Relocation, Relocation’ mercifully drew to a close. That it petered out to a bore draw was down to both captains. Shaun Udal could have opened the game up on Friday by declaring at 300. Instead, Nic Pothas was allowed to notch up his third hundred in four championship games and when Hampshire eventually concluded their first innings just 17 runs shy of their hosts, one was left wondering why they chose to deny Dimitri Mascarenhas an equally deserved half-century.

Surrey’s failure was not declaring at tea yesterday, when they could have dangled the carrot in front of Hampshire, who would have needed 237 off a minimum of 32 overs to keep themselves in contention of winning the championship title. Perhaps the news that Middlesex were two down in their second innings at Canterbury was what persuaded Mark Butcher to opt for the points his side could earn from the draw; or was the pain of Guildford still fresh in the minds of his players? Either way, Middlesex held on and stay just ahead of their London rivals with one game in hand by virtue of the eight-point penalty Surrey picked up for being caught, bang to rights, tampering with the ball in their first meeting with Notts.

It would appear that Surrey’s only hope of avoiding relocation to the wilderness of Division Two - which could well become a backwater with just two sides coming up in future - is for it to rain all next week and thus prevent the contest between Gloucestershire and Middlesex even going ahead. Further down the line, Surrey will need to conjure up more out of their game at Edgbaston than Ben Hutton’s men get out of his side’s contest against Kent at Lord’s. The good news is that the weather forecast for Bristol is for it to rain on Wednesday and Thursday. It all sounds quite negative, but that is how things have become, despite Steve Rixon promising at the start of the season that his side would play an attacking brand of cricket.

After losing Scott Newman in the first over of the day, yesterday, Richard Clinton and Mark Ramprakash shared in a watchful 93-run partnership for the second wicket before both departed to spin on the stroke of lunch. Ramprakash was picked up at backward short leg off Udal, then, in the very next over, Clinton was taken at slip off Greg Lamb. Two overs earlier, the 23-year-old left-hander had brought up his fifty in 109 deliveries shortly after despatching Lamb to the fence either side of square on the off-side for successive fours. Having taken 32 balls getting off a pair, the only other chance that Clinton gave was when, on 15, a difficult catch went begging down the leg-side off Mascarehas’s first ball.

This year’s Surrey captain and last year’s Surrey captain, Mark Butcher and Jonathan Batty saw their side through a tense period immediately after the break, adding 74 in 25 overs before Butcher, seemingly seeking to up the tempo, skied a catch to David Griffiths, the substitute fieldsman, tracking back from mid-off.

Butcher should have taken a leaf out of Alistair Brown’s book. Brown wasted no time either playing himself in or going past 13,000 first-class runs for Surrey, spanking the first ball he received, from James Bruce, out of the ground for six. A replacement cherry was sought only for Brown to send that one down Clayton Road four overs later. Sandwiched in-between were the wickets of Batty, caught at forward short leg off Udal, and Azhar Mahmood, who was claimed behind off Bruce without troubling the scorers.

What action there was after tea was of little consequence. Brown hit a straight six off Udal in the 74th over, which also saw him depart for a breezy 42 in 34 deliveries. Saqlain Mushtaq tickled the last ball of the 80th over down leg-side to give Shaun Udal his 32nd five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Nayan Doshi moved into double figures for the only fourth time in 14 innings this summer before, like the crowd, he was half asleep when Tim Murtagh punched Lamb’s off-spin to wide mid-off and ran for the single. Finally, after fielding the ball at the non-striker’s end off John Crawley’s bowling, Mohammad Akram lofted the former England batsman to mid-wicket.

GO TO:

BACK TO: