After following-on 244 behind, Surrey appeared to be on the brink of making the game safe thanks to Mark Butcher and Graham Thorpe, who put on 178 in 52 overs for the visitors’ third wicket. When Thorpe departed to a lazy outside edge his side were 364 for three in their second dig, which represented a lead of 120 with 61 overs remaining. But, in all, Surrey lost their last eight wickets for fifty runs to leave the home side needing 171 in 41 overs, which they managed with more than eight overs to spare.

The match turned on Warwickshire claiming the second new ball. Having persevered with spin for the majority of the first 96 overs, Nick Knight’s rethink was rewarded ten times over as Dewald Pretorius and Neil Carter shared six wickets.

In successive overs Pretorius got through the defences of Jonathan Batty and Mark Butcher. Carter also pulled out all the stops in a spell of three for 16. Sandwiched in-between those two crucial dismissals, Adam Hollioake bagged his first pair in first-class cricket when, in fending off a bouncer from the left-arm seamer, he was caught by wicketkeeper Tony Frost.

Butcher had made a commanding 184, which was the result of six hours’ crease occupation. The England number three hit 22 boundaries from 331 balls, but an inside-edge got through to spectacularly leave just his leg stump standing. With Surrey shell-shocked, both Azhar Mahmood and Ian Salisbury needlessly gave away their wickets away cheaply to catches in the slips.

Dougie Brown captured the last two scalps in four balls with deliveries that appeared to keep low. Martin Bicknell, who showed some resistance, played on and Saqlain Mushtaq was lbw after being denied a runner because his knee problem was considered to be an aggravation of an old injury, rather than one sustained in this particular match.

Neil Carter was prominent again when Warwickshire’s run chase, which turned out to be a stroll, got off to a positive start. He swung Jimmy Ormond, whose four overs went for thirty, over square-leg for six on his way to 24 off 26 balls, but was run out by a direct throw from Batty when the total had reached 47 in the tenth over.

The limping Saqlain joined the attack and took a wicket in his second over when Mark Wagh, who had announced himself with three boundaries in one over from Bicknell, tried to work a ball on off-stump to leg and was adjudged leg before. The Pakistan off-spinner then yorked Ian Bell, but the attractive Jonathan Trott accompanied his skipper over the winning line with an unbeaten with 35 in 29 balls, which included the winning hit – a four through mid-wicket off Salisbury. Knight, for whom captaincy has appeared to be a distraction, finished with his first half-century of the campaign, which was posted in 71 deliveries.

This defeat puts Surrey in the relegation zone in Division One of the County Championship, the competition they have almost made their own in recent years. With Lancashire to play in two out of the last four matches of the campaign, the Oval outfit will need to return to winning ways soon if they are to avoid the drop.

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