Though they could not blame the weather on the last day for denying them victory, Surrey would almost certainly have won this contest in convincing fashion had it not been for the loss of 87 overs in the match to a combination of bad light and, mostly, rain.

Crucially, the last 20 overs of Friday’s play disappeared in a heavy and prolonged shower, just as Jimmy Ormond was whipping up enough pace to make the Warwickshire batsmen look apprehensive. Quite how critical it was that Nick Knight survived an appeal for a catch at second slip off Harbhajan Singh in the 17th over of the visitors’ second innings will never be known, but it must surely have been another turning point.

Umpire Allan Jones decreed that the ball had hit the left-hander’s foot rather than his bat - although the video evidence suggested otherwise – and the hosts had to endure the company of the Warwickshire captain until the fourth over after lunch, when he gloved a spiteful delivery from Ormond to the keeper. For 35 overs, in all, yesterday Knight proved to be a rock. He added just 23 in 107 balls to his overnight score, but what was more important was he showed to his team-mates that Harbhajan could be repelled.

Only one wicket fell in the morning session when Jonathan Trott was caught at second slip by Alistair Brown off Harbhajan Singh for an entertaining 37, which left the Indian with figures of six overs, one for five. But the off-spinner went another twenty overs on an increasingly placid pitch without causing any real stir other than when he tried to bounce Michael Powell and was no-balled under Law 42.6a ii - the bowling of fast, short-pitched balls which pass over head height of the striker standing upright at the crease. However, when the umpires refused, initially, to confirm or deny exactly why Harbhajan had been no-balled, speculation was rife that he had been called for throwing.

After a post-lunch shower had shaved off nine overs, and Knight had departed, Michael Powell and Alex Loudon put on an unbeaten 131 in 41 overs for the fourth-wicket. Powell reached his fifty in 131 deliveries with a cut three to third man off Harbhajan in the 69th over. Loudon posted his in 102 balls when he scampered a single to extra cover off Ormond in the 75th over; after the former Leicestershire man had given up bowling his occasional off-breaks.

Eight overs later play was called off for bad light with 12 of the last hour’s sixteen overs remaining.

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