Mark Ramprakash's form with the bat is beginning to take on superhuman proportions. Yesterday, at New Road, against Surrey's nearest challengers for the Division Two title, he struck a sublime 196 off 256 balls to record a fifth hundred in as many championship matches for the county. More notably, all five of them have been scores of 155 or more, which is thought to be a world record. In the process, the former Middlesex man also went past 2,000 first-class runs for the season; making him the first Englishman to do so since the introduction of two divisions and the first Surrey batsman to achieve it since David Ward in 1990.

With Jonathan Batty and Alistair Brown scoring hundreds that took each of them to within touching distance of a thousand first-class runs for the summer, the visitors enjoyed a good day all in all. They currently sit 192 runs ahead with six first innings wickets still intact. With the weather for the rest of this match now forecast to be mainly dry, there must be every chance that the Brown Caps will go on to register their first championship victory at Worcester since 1983.

In overcast conditions Scott Newman was the first to take the initiative by making an attractive 64 off 98 balls, which included thirteen fours; most of them driven through the covers. When Newman went, attempting to hoist Gareth Batty's off-spin over mid-wicket, Jonathan Batty took up the cudgels and progressed to a second hundred in five visits to the crease in the championship.

Before he edged Roger Sillence lazily to Ben Smith at slip to finish with 104 off 203 balls, the Brown Caps' stumper had shared in stands of 109 and 157. But then there came a blip, as Mark Butcher was caught behind without scoring, when Zaheer Khan got one to bounce and leave the Surrey skipper.

Thereafter, however, the runs flowed with embarrassing ease for the visitors. Alistair Brown needed just 107 deliveries to reach his fourth hundred of the 2006 championship campaign, while Ramprakash, like a man on a mission, constructed another huge score at the other end.

Having posted his fifty in 75 deliveries, Ramprakash reached his eighth hundred of the season with a thick outside edge to the third man boundary off Khan. Shortly after going past the 150-mark, the 36-year-old completed 2,000 runs for the season with a cover driven boundary off Nadeem Malik.

Alistair Brown, meanwhile, was gorging himself on his way to an unbeaten 110 that included sixes over extra cover and straight down the ground.

The pair broke the previous record for Surrey's fourth wicket against Worcestershire - held by Younis Ahmed and Graham Roope, who put on 194 at the Oval in 1972 - by adding 229 in forty overs. However, in the final over of the day Ramprakash top edged a sweep and was caught by Jacques, who had to run round from leg slip to slip to claim what must undoubtedly be the most sought after scalp in county cricket.

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