Pope's maiden hundred brings meaning to drab day

Ollie Pope, making only his third first-class appearance, struck a maiden first-class century which culminated in slightly hollow circumstances with an over from the part-time bowling of James Vince, the former England batsman, in a match long destined for a draw.

Pope, 19, appeared in complete control throughout his free-flowing innings, cutting and pulling with gusto, as he ended up on an unbeaten 100.

Vince maintained appearances as he added five deliveries of respectable medium pace to the eight overs he had previously bowled in the Championship this season.

Pope took two nine runs from Vince's over to reach his hundred. As soon as it was achieved, in only his third first-class appearance, captains George Bailey and Gareth Batty shock hands to end the game at 4.30pm.

Pope could take pride in his breakthrough, nevertheless. "The first champo hundred was always going to be a special moment and luckily it came a lot quicker than I had anticipated," he said. "It is an incredibly proud moment.

"This is a moment I have dreamed about and it was just about when it was going to come. The first 40 odd runs I had to work pretty hard for because they came at us because they had a game to win.

Surrey were in slight danger - only 32 on with half the day remaining when they lost their fourth wicket, but Pope and Ben Foakes added an unbroken stand of 158 in 40 overs.

Pope reached his first professional half century in 89 balls before accelerating to three figures from 137 delivery. Foakes had batted a similarly impressive innings to reach 83 not out, having scored his fifty in 113 balls.

Rain washed out all but five overs on the opening day, and despite two full days, rain on the morning of the fourth day ended hopes of a positive result.

Instead Hampshire keep hold of their third place position by taking an additional bonus point, with Surrey remaining fourth.