Yesterday, on a sluggish Oval wicket, all of Surrey's batsmen, with the possible exception of Scott Newman, avoided the trap of slipping into Twenty20 mode. Instead, the Brown Caps applied themselves diligently to the task of building a decent first innings total against a Kent attack that was no less impressive for Azhar Mahmood's absence. An unbeaten 70 off 240 balls by Jonathan Batty underlined, most of all, the rewards that patience and determination can bring.

After Surrey had won the toss and chosen to bat Matthew Spriegel was the first to assert himself, square driving Robbie Joseph for four in the second over of the day. Three overs later, Newman flashed Yasir Arafat past gully to the third man boundary, and, next ball, cut the Pakistan fast bowler with authority. However, Newman's stay proved to be fleeting and Rob Key accepted an easy catch at mid-on in the sixth over.

Spriegel, who was dropped at third slip off Joseph on twelve, departed in the 19th over when Ryan McLaren - whose opening spell read 6-2-14-1 - clipped the top of the left-hander's off stump.

At lunch Mark Ramprakash had 31 to his name. The former Middlesex man opened his account with a sweetly cover driven four off Joseph and in the 21st over despatched a no-ball from McLaren with similar disdain. But, on 23, he should perhaps have been caught at cover point off the unlucky Joseph.

Batty only managed one boundary before lunch, but in driving Martin Saggers to the extra cover boundary it suggested that a good afternoon lay ahead for the Brown Caps' stumper.

The afternoon session was hard work for all concerned. With only 76 runs coming between lunch and tea, one hoped that there was nobody, having possibly been bitten by the Twenty20 bug, attending their first day of championship cricket, for it was attritional stuff.

Batty flicked a couple of fours down to fine leg and in the 45th over Ramprakash drove McLaren sweetly through cover, but in the South African's next over Geraint Jones took a brilliant one-handed catch away to his right to delay the arrival of Ramprakash's hundredth first-class hundred still further.

The next twelve overs did not see a boundary being struck, but the near deadlock was broken when Batty cover drove Saggers in the 59th over. In the next, James Tredwell's eleventh, Usman Afzaal cut the first four conceded by the 26-year-old off-spinner. Four overs later Afzaal pulled the same bowler to the mid-wicket fence.

Four overs after tea Batty cut Arafat for four and in the 75th over the 33-year-old progressed to his third half-century in four championship innings, which occupied 173 balls. At the other end, Afzaal hit Tredwell for two boundaries square of the wicket in the 80th over, which prompted the visitors to take the new ball shortly afterwards.

Afzaal's fifty, which was brought up with a cut four off Joseph, came in 102 deliveries and included eight boundaries. Three overs later the former Notts and Northants man posted the hundred partnership by driving Arafat to the cover fence, but, to the very next ball, Afzaal, fiddling outside his off stump, was caught behind for 57.

Alistair Brown made a tentative start, precariously shouldering his arms on a number of occasions, but finished the day undefeated on 11, which included one boundary, when he despatched Arafat through extra cover.

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