By having a hand in three of the four wickets that Surrey needed yesterday morning to register their second innings victory in the space of four championship matches, Ian Salisbury ensured that those wanting to witness Leicestershire's annihilation and watch all of England's opening game in the World Cup did not have to face a moral dilemma. When Salisbury jogged back from mid-off to pouch a well judged catch to dismiss Claude Henderson off the bowling of Nayan Doshi the smattering of spectators who went along to the Brit Oval had just over an hour to prepare for the kick-off in Frankfurt.

Surrey's victory, their second this summer against Leicestershire, puts them twenty-eight points clear at the top of Liverpool Victoria Division Two table. With two of the weakest sides in the division - Glamorgan and Northants - still to be encountered by the Brown Caps, there may not be much for the other sides to play for by the time the competition reaches its halfway stage.

With the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy going the same way it is quite possible that the cut and thrust of county cricket has been watered down by the switch to "two up two down" in the County Championship. By all accounts the ECB have been embarrassed into altering the C&G Trophy for next season and it is likely that the reward for the conference winners will be automatic qualification for a new semi-final stage, with the other two places being decided by play-offs between the second and third teams in each conference.

Resuming on 179 for six, Leicestershire lost David Masters in the seventh over of the day to a delivery that Mohammad Akram got to reverse. Six overs later Darren Robinson pulled the former Pakistan international for four to bring up the twenty-first century of his career in his 300th first-class innings. It had taken the stand-in Foxes skipper 113 balls and included 17 fours. But, by lasting just five more overs, Robinson did not have time to build on it, despite the large gaps on offer due to Mark Butcher's attacking field placings.

Indeed, other than seven overs from Rikki Clarke which were a complete waste of time for all concerned, runs came at a healthy rate, even if the Leicestershire batsmen were under immense pressure. Robinson succumbed by following a Salisbury leg-break. Henderson and Stuart Broad resisted for thirteen overs before the latter was superbly caught and bowled by Salisbury, diving away to his right. Then, with no addition to the total, Henderson departed to spark Surrey's wild celebrations.

Salisbury finished with figures of four for 64. The former England spinner has now taken 14 wickets at an average of fourteen in two matches.

After the match the Surrey coach, Alan Butcher, said: "We needed to show more of a ruthless streak, and we certainly did that. But the overall display on what was a fairly benign pitch, it turned a bit but reasonably slowly, was excellent. I thought all the bowlers contributed. Rikki Clarke bowled with great pace and hostility in the first innings. We had a plan to cope with Dinesh Mongia, who has been their main scorer, and we unsettled him with a short pitched attack. That worked a treat. Plans are great, but you have to have people to execute them well.

"We've got to make sure that we keep that form going and don't sit back now that we've got a cushion. We need to go on an make it an even bigger one. We won't even be taking Glamorgan and Northants, who we haven't faced yet and are bottom and one from bottom, for granted because they have individual players who can, perhaps, turn a game."

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