Mark Ramprakash made yet another hundred today to help Surrey take a strangle hold in their match against Lancashire at the Brit Oval.

Going into the last day, the visitors require a further 462 runs with ten wickets remaining.

The Surrey run machine made an unbeaten 130, which was his tenth Championship hundred of the season and his 97th overall getting ever closer to that magical mark of 100 first-class hundreds.

Ramprakash has been in amazing form once again this season and has now finished with an incredible 2,026 runs at an average of 101.3. After the exploits of last season where he again finished with an average of over 100, it is the first time ever that a batsman has completed two consecutive seasons with an average of three figures.

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Earlier in the day, Surrey started on 21 without loss but lost Scott Newman caught by Mark Chilton off the bowling of Dominic Cork for eight. Jonathan Batty and Ramprakash fought hard to build a second wicket partnership of 89 before Batty fell for 45 trying to pull a climbing delivery from Oliver Newby but only succeeded in presenting an easy catch to Sajid Mahmood at mid wicket.

The lead increased further when the partnerships continued to flow as the Surrey skipper came to the crease and he too looked in ominous form. He struck eight boundaries in his innings of 47, which included a serene cover drive on the up off Mahmood which whistled to the boundary.

Stewart Walters and James Benning, both making handy first innings contributions, missed out today but it didn’t worry Surrey, who had their “banker” at the other end, steadily accumulating ones and twos and very occasionally climbing into the odd delivery he would have otherwise defended.

The 38 year old batted and batted but it appeared that Butcher wanted to play Lancashire out of a match that Surrey does not need to win. The Surrey captain, eventually declaring the innings closed at 295-5 with Ramprakash, unbeaten on 130 from 225 deliveries, which included 19 fours and one six.

The remarkable statistic to come from today after yet another superb stint out in the middle is the fact that he has only spent 21 overs off the field in this match. For the rest of what has been over 300 overs of action, he has either been batting or fielding.

Lancashire, needing to chase down the unlikely total of 489 are desperate to win. If they don’t, they will surrender their lead at the top of table to Sussex who are approaching what looks to be an easy win against Worcestershire at Hove tomorrow. If they fail to reach the required victory target, the LV County Championship crown will go to Sussex (if they win) or Durham (who are currently in first position).

James Benning put down a tough chance off Matt Nicholson in the first over of the Lancashire second innings but from that point on, both Paul Horton and Chilton batted out the remainder of the day to close on 27-0.

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