Brown charges Surrey to world record one-day total

Surrey 496 for 4 (Brown 176, Benning 152, Clarke 82*) beat Gloucestershire 239 (Hardinges 57, Adshead 54, Akram 4-36) by 257 runs
Scorecard
Run chart of the onslaught

Alistair Brown, the Surrey and former England batsman, struck an astonishing 176 from just 97 balls in Surrey's world record 496 for 4 against Gloucestershire at The Oval.

The total comfortably surpassed Sri Lanka's 443 for 9, made against the Netherlands in 2006, and also beat Surrey's previous highest - 438 for 9 against Glamorgan, at The Oval, in 2002. Brown was the destroyer that day, too, with 268 from 160 balls.

Brown, who brought up his hundred from 50 balls, wasn't alone, though. James Benning played with no less audacity, clean-hitting his way to 152 from 134. The pair shared in an opening stand of 294 before Brown was bowled by Marcus North: it was the fourth highest opening stand in the history of one-day cricket, exceeding Brown and Ian Ward's 286 in the match against Glamorgan in 2002.

Yet even with Brown back in the pavilion, Gloucestershire's bowlers were still at the mercy of The Oval's short boundaries, and Surrey's all-out aggression, with Benning continuing on to a blistering hundred - if not quite as ruthless as Brown's. Rikki Clarke then stretched Surrey's total into the record books with a savage 82 from a mere 28 balls - with six sixes and nine fours.

Daunted by such a mountainous total, Gloucestershire's top-order folded limply with Mohammad Akram (4 for 36) and Azhar Mahmood (2 for 37) reducing the visitors to 65 for 5, facing certain capitulation. But Mark Hardinges and Stephen Adshead proved what a flat track it was with a rollicking partnership of 114. However, both fell in quick succession - Adshead for a very brisk 54 from just 40 - as Akram ended with four wickets. Chris Schofield also impressed with 3 for 38 in a tidy seven-over spell.