Surrey regain the strut

Surrey 525 (Ramprakash 134) beat Lancashire 210 and 260 (Cork 109) by an innings and 55 runs
Scorecard

Two Championship wins in two games and Surrey are suddenly displaying some of the strut that we're used to. Irresistible bowling, insistent fielding, and all that on-field chatter - it's like they've never been away.

Still, there was one person who refused to let the brown hats have all the glory. Dominic Cork doesn't like sharing the limelight, let alone losing it, so it was characteristic of him that while all around him were falling under Surrey's sway, he should choose the moment to launch a blistering attempt on the record for the season's fastest first-class century.

He came to the crease at 104 for 6, Lancashire down and only a spider's thread from out. Immediately, Azhar unleashed two short balls, one that Cork hooked uncontrollably into open space, the second a snorter that was past his nose before he could so much as sneeze at it. But soon the rain was falling and the players hurrying in for an early lunch. You can only assume that Cork guzzled Weetabix and Lucozade.

Because from the moment he reappeared he seemed to have only one thing on his mind, and that was heaving the ball over the boundary as many times as he could. He hit three sixes and six fours on his way to 50, two of the sixes (and one of the fours) coming off a single Martin Bicknell over. And then, incredibly, he upped the pace. Nayan Doshi's entry to the attack proved a particularly juicy dish - two consecutive full tosses were smashed to mid-off, earning 10 runs. Cork brought his hundred up - in 81 balls - with two more sixes off Doshi, and although Doshi eventually had him caught nonchalantly on the boundary by Murtagh, it proved something of a Pyrrhic victory. Doshi had already been hit for 50 runs off 40 balls.

However, Cork's frenzied hitting only delayed what had been inevitable since Carl Hooper edged behind for 51. He had been the only Lancashire batsman to apply the virtues of caution and confidence to his batting, which made it all the more surprising that, after scarcely acknowledging his half-century and getting his head back down, he should edge the next ball behind with a half-hearted prod. Glen Chapple then sauntered a single only to see Tim Murtagh's throw from fine leg reach the stumps before him. The moment the last wicket eventually fell, a thunderstorm broke and rain poured down for the next two hours. That just about seemed to sum up Lancashire's day.