Yesterday, Nottinghamshire continued to pile the pressure on Surrey on the pitch while, off it, the ball-tampering affair showed no signs of going away. Having passed the highest score for Notts against Surrey on the second afternoon, the visitors went on to record the fourth highest of all-time against the Oval outfit, relegating Leicestershire’s 636-4 declared at Grace Road in 2003 to fifth place.

To many that occasion, at Leicester, marked the end of Surrey’s highly successful era under the direction of Adam Hollioake. Even so, the Ovalites have lost just one match by an innings since then – at Canterbury in September 2003. Only a miraculous rearguard action can save them from such a fate today. With just four wickets intact and 255 needed to make Nottinghamshire bat again, there is a chance that the hosts are on the brink of their worst ever defeat in the County Championship. At Huddersfield in 1881 they lost to Yorkshire by an innings and 217 runs.

The other record to fall yesterday was the highest individual score by a Notts batsman against Surrey – set by William Gunn at the Oval in 1898 – which is now held by Stephen Fleming. The New Zealander’s 238 took 236 balls, 468 minutes and included five sixes and 28 fours.

Fleming departed in the eighth over of the day, though not before losing Chris Read, who was squared up by Mohammad Akram’s second ball, and Samit Patel, who played around one that nipped back sharply from Martin Bicknell. To crush Surrey’s spirit still further the visitors’ eighth-wicket pair of Mark Ealham and Paul Franks then clubbed an unbeaten 72 in eight overs to round things off an hour before lunch.

Needing 475 to avoid an innings defeat, the Surrey openers got through to the break unscathed. But the first ball Scott Newman faced after lunch left him off the pitch enough to catch the outside edge. With Batty and Ramprakash defending stoutly, the next fifteen overs produced just 27 runs. But then the Ovalites lost two wickets in the space of four balls from Ealham. Jonathan Batty was bowled offering no shot and poor old Graham Thorpe got an inside edge on to the timbers.

Alistair Brown was also unlucky when the ball spun back off his dead bat and on to his stumps in the 40th over. Rikki Clarke held on for a 87 minutes before nibbling at Graeme Swann and, eleven overs later, James Benning was trapped leg before on the back foot by Franks.

Almost predictably, Mark Ramprakash was still there at the close with an unbeaten 92 in 215 deliveries. The former Middlesex man hit three sixes, all of them off Swann. The first, just before tea, disappeared over mid-wicket, the next, in the 66th over, went straight down the ground and for the third, in the penultimate over of the day, Ramprakash opted for mid-wicket again.

Following the ball-tampering episode that has largely overshadowed this match the Chief Executive of Surrey CCC, Paul Sheldon said: “We will make a statement tomorrow, but in the interim we have asked our chairman of cricket, Micky Stewart, to make an internal investigation, which will be forwarded to the ECB. These things do happen from time to time, sadly they happened here. We have got to put it right, investigate it quickly, deal with the problem and then move on.” Sheldon added that he was “very disappointed” and “would be absolutely certain” that Steve Rixon, who arrives back in the country today, feels just the same.

When asked what action would result, Sheldon said: “That will be decided after the investigation. This is a governing body issue. We will only do it in conjunction with the ECB. We’re very close to the ECB on all these things. I’m sure that we will agree together what the action will be, but it must be tough and set an example.”

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