A 227 run partnership between Mark Ramprakash and Mark Butcher took Surrey from their overnight stronghold into a match winning position as the Brown Caps registered an enormous first innings score of 556.

Both players played nicely during the first hour as Hampshire started strongly in an attempt to break the partnership that was already worth 102 from the previous day’s efforts. Neither player looked in any sort of trouble as the neatly tucked the bad ball into the gaps and more often than not to the boundary.

The lack of the Shane Warne factor appeared to tell as Butcher pushed on to near his century, whilst Ramprakash marched past 150. Shortly before the lunch break, Butcher timed a square cut off James Bruce to take himself to three figures, but was dismissed the very next ball, lbw, leaving with Surrey 406 for three.

After the interval, Hampshire came out fighting and their renewed exuberance paid dividends as they started to make inroads into Surrey’s batting. Ramprakash was bowled by Darren Powell just 12 short of a double century, and with only another 13 runs added to the total, Stewart Walters became Bruce’s second victim leaving Surrey 433 for five.

When Powell picked up Schofield for nought, Hampshire would have imagined they might run through the remainder of the Surrey order. However this was not to happen, as Chris Jordan gave some superb support to James Benning, who made a well-paced 42 before being caught at slip off Shaun Udal. The lower order continued to prosper as the remaining three Surrey wickets put on 73 to take Surrey up to 556.

An early tea was taken and after the break, Surrey came out in a positive frame of mind. This told immediately as Matthew Nicholson trapped Michael Carberry lbw in the first over without scoring. Surrey’s overseas player was looking menacing, moving the ball through the air constantly keeping the batsmen under pressure. This soon brought about a false shot from Michael Brown, who was, unfortunately for Surrey, put down by Chris Schofield at gully.

Nevertheless, Surrey continued to mount the pressure and squeeze the Hampshire batsmen. The home side seemed content to just to knock the ball around, which allowed Butcher to set some attacking fields. He turned to his spinning duo, Harbhajan Singh and Schofield and, which brought about the wicket Surrey wanted. It was Schofield who had his vengeance for his earlier error, as he trapped Brown in front of all three making the score 45 for two.

With two runs added to the board, the light began to deteriorate, eventually getting so bad that the umpires took the players off the field. After a short period, there did not appear to be any improvement leaving the official with little choice but to bring play to a premature close.

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