Surrey win by three wickets at The Oval

Lancashire tried as best as they could, this was a situation in which they would have given anything to have Murali available, but Lancs simple do not have a bowler who can be relied on to break apart a pair of stalwarts like Ramps and the Gaffer once their anchors a laid. Both continued with combination of patience and good strokeplay that spoke volumes for the number of runs needed and the number of overs available to get them in.

The day was a little brighter than Friday had been, and both batsmen looked set. Chilton though had bowled well for the conditions on Friday and his gentle medium pace was eventually the tool that pried Stewart mistimed an off drive and holed out to mid-off where Byas took a simple catch, the first century stand of the match though had effectively settled matters, and despite the loss of Azhar and Tudor in the finishing straight as both forgot that the asking rate was, by now comfortably less than one an over, but Ramprakash, accompanied by the experienced Martin Bicknell saw the home side to a hard fought victory.

For Surrey the only negative aspects of this game of this game are the return of casual batting in their poor total of 216 and the rare spells of loose bowling from their seamers. Once again their batting had wobbled in a game with their England players available, the weakened side are undefeated since 1998 in four day cricket.

For Lancashire the fact that they remained well in the game until after tea on the third day will be reassuring, the improvement in the side, which has seen the arrival of three new top order batsmen though this season is on this evidence mainly in the bowling department.