In recent memory Ian Greig, David Ward, Alistair Brown and Mark Ramprakash have all been within sight of becoming the first Surrey batsman since Sir Jack Hobbs to make a triple-hundred for the Brown Caps, only to be denied. But yesterday, Ramprakash took advantage of a flat wicket and an uninspiring Northamptonshire attack to duly become the sixth Ovalite to hit a triple-century; and the eighth in all if one counts those that Andy Sandham and John Edrich made for their country.

Ramprakash batted for nearly nine hours, faced 445 balls and hit 44 fours and a straight six off Ben Phillips before reaching the landmark, which was a personal best. Clearly tired, though understandably relieved, the former Middlesex man wearily raised his bat and his helmet to acknowledge the applause coming from the direction of pavilion and the dressing-room balcony.

Having fallen just short against Gloucestershire in May, Ramprakash spent an agonising forty minutes in the nervous 290's before smearing Usman Afzaal over backward point for the two runs he needed in the end, whereupon Mark Butcher called his batsmen in with Surrey 322 runs ahead.

But after losing Stephen Peters in the fourth over, to a ball that appeared to keep low from Azhar Mahmood, Rogers and Afzaal saw the visitors through to stumps with an unbeaten stand worth 155 in thirty-seven overs for the second wicket, which raised the prospect of a match which the Brown Caps have bossed ending up in a draw.

Chris Rogers reached his half-century off 105 balls, though not before Afzaal went to his in 58 deliveries in the 21st over. The former Nottinghamshire man reached his second hundred against Surrey this season in the last over of the day, off 113 balls, with an edge through the vacant third slip area for four off Rikki Clarke.

Resuming on 417 for two, Ramprakash and Butcher put on 170 runs in the morning session. After lunch they eased the home side past 600, and in so doing broke the record for the number of runs Surrey have put on for the first three wickets of a first-class innings. The previous record came, coincidentally, against Northants at The Oval in June 1921 when Sandham, in partnership with Jeacocke, Ducat and Cook made it 591 for three before Percy Fender drew a line under the home side's first innings at the end of the opening day.

Ramprakash's double-century, which took 310 balls, was closely followed by Butcher's third hundred of the campaign in 189 deliveries. The Brown Caps' captain made 147 off 250 balls, including 20 fours and a straight six off Jason Brown before needlessly running himself out going for a second run on to the leg-side off Afzaal in the 153rd over.

But Ramprakash forged on while Brown and Clarke came and went. Alistair Brown looked as if he was primed to make an unbeaten sixty or seventy in double-quick time only to perish trying to cut the ball off his stumps, while Rikki Clarke was bowled round his legs.

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