Butcher boosts Surrey in NatWest Trophy

Mark Butcher (87 n.o.) took out his in Surrey's convincing win by 7 wickets over Sussex in the NatWest Trophy fourth-round match at The Oval. The South Londoners' reward is a home match with Lancashire in the quarter-finals.

Chasing 193 runs to win Surrey made 196-3 in 47.4 overs, of which Butcher scored his runs from 146 balls in 209 minutes with three boundaries. He and his brother-in-law Alec Stewart (31) added 85 runs for the second wicket after Ally Brown had been caught at the wicket cheaply. With the wayward Sussex bowlers giving away 20 wides in 35 extras Robin Martin-Jenkins, alone, achieved any consistency.

Ian Ward (29) stayed with Butcher as 90 runs were scored for the third wicket. Sussex last effective chance to come back into contention was when Chris Adams missed Adam Hollioake in the slips from the first delivery he faced. He went on to hit the winning run.

With only two overs possible yesterday because of the rain Sussex resumed on 5-0 and quickly had skipper Adams caught by Butcher from Alex Tudor. After Cottey was out at 17, Michael Bevan (60 in 94 minutes with six fours) and Richard Montgomerie (53 in 168 minutes) shared a third-wicket stand of 104 runs. Bevan's departure to a catch between by Stewart off leg-spinner Salisbury at 143 opened up the vulnerable lower-order batting.

The last six wickets went down for 59 runs.