By following up his 223 with an undefeated 103, Mark Ramprakash set yet another batting record yesterday. He has now recorded two centuries in a match more times than any other batsman in the County Championship. But, despite giving themselves a minimum of 85 overs to dismiss Middlesex a second time, Surrey could only pick up three wickets before the protagonists shook hands on a draw at 5.00pm.

But the outcome of this contest had been apparent long before then. Having been set 374 to win, Andrew Strauss and Scott Newman set their stall out before lunch by showing no intention of chasing down the target. Neither opener experienced any real dramas. Newman pulled Jade Dernbach for four in the twelfth over and, three overs later, caused umpire Richard Kettleborough to take evasive action when the former Surrey opener swept Gareth Batty to the rope at square leg.

Resuming on 47-0 after the break, under an even murkier sky, the visitors showed a little more purpose. Strauss immediately took his side past fifty before ending the first over back with a pulled four off Chris Tremlett. Five overs later, Newman cut Batty, who had switched to the Vauxhall End, to the rope at cover point.

The introduction of Usman Afzaal's slow left-arm spin gave the left-handers something to ponder. Indeed, it seemed a strange decision by Rory Hamilton-Brown to give him just nine overs before settling on a combination of Dernbach and Batty, neither of whom troubled the batsmen particularly.

That said, Batty accounted for Newman with a lifting delivery in the 33rd over and Dernbach's perseverance was rewarded when he had Strauss driving to short extra cover - a carbon copy of his dismissal in the first innings - shortly before tea; the England captain finishing with 61 off 156 deliveries, including seven boundaries.

The only deed of note after tea came when Afzaal returned to capture the wicket of Dawid Malan, who was caught at deep mid-wicket three overs from the conclusion.

Earlier, Surrey batted on for a further eight and a half overs until Hamilton-Brown was caught at the second attempt by Strauss at short extra cover off the bowling of Pedro Collins, though not before Ramprakash became only the second batsman in Surrey history to hit a hundred and a double-hundred in the same match - the other being Scott Newman, who made 117 and 219 against Glamorgan at the Oval in 2005.

With Middlesex opting to spread the field the Brown Caps' third wicket pair had difficulty finding the boundary. In the third over of the day, Ramprakash drove Tim Murtagh through the vacant slips area for four. Three overs later, Hamilton-Brown hit successive boundaries when he drove Steven Finn straight up the ground and then top-edged a pull over the wicketkeeper's head.

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