SURREY OVERCOME UNEXPECTED ALARM by Marcus Hook
Worcestershire Royals 244-5 (45 Overs) v Surrey Lions 247-9 (41.3 Overs). Surrey Lions win by 1 wicket.

The Lions made it three out of three in Division One of the National Cricket League thanks to a partnership of 153 in 22 overs between Alistair Brown and Mark Ramprakash – a new Surrey one-day league for the second wicket record against Worcestershire. But in the end the visitors only just scraped home after losing five wickets for 30 runs in the space of eight overs.

It was not their only scare yesterday, which, for most of them, began with the sound of the fire alarm going off in the team hotel – the Hilton Puckrup Hall, near Tewkesbury. As partly-clothed guests waited around in the car park, the fire, which destroyed a laundry basket and left a room badly smoke damaged, was dealt with by the Fire Service.

After the early departure of Ian Ward, caught at square leg off the third ball of the Surrey reply, Brown and Ramprakash set the game alight with some dazzling strokeplay and some excellent running between the wickets. Alistair Brown’s half-century took just 43 balls and included ten fours.

The visitors’ hundred came up in the fifteenth over when Mark Ramprakash pulled Nantie Hayward down to long leg. A similar stroke two overs later took the former Middlesex man to his second one-day fifty in as many days off 47 deliveries. Ramprakash clubbed a free-hit over the boundary at square leg for six, and Brown hit Gareth Batty, straight, for a maximum of his own.

In the opinion of the third umpire, Vanburn Holder, Brown was stumped in Batty’s third over. The off-spinner’s fourth brought the wicket of Mark Ramprakash, caught behind off an attempted sweep, which ballooned to the keeper Steve Rhodes.

Rhodes should possibly have caught a gloved chance off Graham Thorpe four overs later. However, in Batty’s next over – the 31st – the England left-hander took his side past the two-hundred mark with a four over mid-on. Thorpe was then run out by a direct hit from Hayward at mid-off.

Two balls later he was joined in the pavilion by Adam Hollioake. Rikki Clarke was then leg before to a full-length delivery and Azhar Mahmood was caught at mid-on, both to the bowling of Kabir Ali. To perplex the travelling supporters still further, the visitors lost Jonathan Batty and Saqlain Mushtaq to catches by Steve Rhodes off the bowling of Nantie Hayward.

Video evidence suggested the second one was a debatable decision. But justice was done when the Lions eventually limped home with 21 balls to spare thanks to the level-headedness of Martin Bicknell and Jimmy Ormond, who drove the winning runs off David Leatherdale.

Earlier, the home side had made 244 for five, allowing a good start to go to waste. By the end of the fielding restrictions, after 15 overs, the Royals were 80 without loss. However, Vikram Solanki, who mixed fierce pulls with wristy drives, and Stephen Peters both fell within sight of their first one-day half centuries of the season.

Solanki was adjudged leg before in Ormond’s third over and Peters was caught at square leg, when he swept Saqlain just inches off the ground in the 24th. Ben Smith was run out by a throw from Clarke, at backward point, in to the keeper before Graeme Hick and Kadeer Ali added 111 in 19 overs for Worcestershire’s fourth wicket. However, apart from when Hick hit Hollioake for four fours in as many balls four overs from the end, the pair were guilty of not upping the ante.

Graeme Hick, whose fifty took 52 deliveries, was caught and bowled off Bicknell’s first ball from the Diglis End. Kadeer Ali, who reached his half-century in 71 balls by taking a single off a beamer from Azhar, was eventually bowled.

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