Surrey shift into top gear at The Oval

Ally Brown struck Surrey back on top of their top-of-the-table championship battle with Yorkshire at The Oval. He attained the 24th hundred of his career from only 106 deliveries with one six and eight fours - in doing so he became the first batsman to score a hundred against the Yorkshire bowling in any tournament this summer.

His 144 runs partnership with Nadeem Shahid tilted the balance in favour of Surrey who ended with a 304 runs lead at 320-7. Nightwatchman Ian Salisbury stayed around for 16 more overs and with Ian Ward put Surrey ahead. With 30 minutes play gone rain interrupted the match.

Half-an-hour into the day a storm interrupted the stand for 20 minutes. Ward and Shahid put on 56 steady runs before the former was caught at the wicket by Blakey. Brown came in on the early fall of Adam Hollioake and showed immediate attention of repeating the form by which he hit an unbeaten 295 against Leicestershire in the last match.

He hit a massive six of Middlebrook to ring up Surrey's hundred. The partnership was not without incident as Shahid was hit on the hand by Chris Silverwood and Brown was missed by Michael Vaughan. Nadeem was eventually l.b.w to Middlebrook for b80 from156 deliveries with nine fours. Martin Bicknell, aided by a runner because of his twisted knee, stayed with Brown until the close.