The perceived wisdom is that Surrey need three wins from their seven remaining matches to survive the drop in the County Championship. However, against the Division One leaders the Oval outfit’s progress yesterday was akin to being stuck in heavy traffic; which, coincidentally, is something that currently plagues Guildford where the start of play was delayed by fifteen minutes due to the problems the Warwickshire players encountered reaching the ground on time.

Thanks largely to Ian Bell and Michael Powell the visitors did not experience any further hold-ups after being inserted – certainly not after lunch. The middle session yielded 162 runs for no losses and the pair’s fourth wicket partnership of 214 in 51 overs set a new county record for the fixture and equalled the highest stand against Surrey at Woodbridge Road.

Bell batted for 317 minutes and made 155 from 238 balls, including 24 elegantly stuck boundaries; while at the other end Powell’s second successive championship hundred lasted just over three hours and exhausted 189 deliveries.

Warwickshire’s reputation for making big totals goes before them. They have recorded maximum batting points in the County Championship in each of their last seven matches. With the likes of Brad Hogg – who made 158 when these sides met at Edgbaston in May – still to come, passing 400 here is a formality. The record total by any side at Guildford (Surrey’s 528-9 against Nottinghamshire in 1995) would even appear to be under serious threat. Strange, therefore, that the hosts should have opted to field after winning the toss.

Such was the quality of the surface that all of the dismissals that occurred yesterday were due to the batsmen contributing to their downfall. Even though the pick of Surrey’s attack was Jimmy Ormond, Phil Sampson enjoyed what luck was going. Their captain’s decision to put the visitors in seemed to be vindicated when Mark Wagh was caught at shoulder height at first slip off Sampson’s fifth ball in championship cricket this term.

Having got off the mark with a risky single, Nick Knight settled down to play some attractive strokes - particularly off Sampson - on course to his first objective of reaching 1,000 first-class runs for the fifth time in his career; but before he could set his sights on another target the former England left-hander was brilliantly caught low down in front of second slip off Ormond. Jonathan Trott made an unconvincing 25 before miscuing a pull to mid-off on the stroke of lunch, after which it was all Warwickshire.

Ian Bell, who oozed class after being dropped at second slip by Alistair Brown off Azhar Mahmood when 25, posted his seventh first-class hundred in 175 deliveries and needed just 57 more to reach the 150-mark, which he passed with successive fours off Nayan Doshi. The young slow left-armer gained his revenge shortly afterwards when the 22-year-old cut him to backward point.  Michael Powell fell to a leg before decision just before the close, which, for the hosts, could not come soon enough.

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