Cricket: Brown exposes the gulf

Middlesex v Surrey

AFTER BATTING for a day and a half, thanks to Alistair Brown's 265 and making their highest score against Middlesex, it remains to be seen whether Surrey's bowlers can compensate for the absence of Saqlain Mushtaq.

Judging from the standard of much of their bowling and some of the fielding, Middlesex were a dispirited side before they began this marathon in the field. To bat for two and a half days seems too tall an order.

After two good hooks in the second over, Ben Hutton was lbw playing across Martin Bicknell before Andy Strauss and Mark Ramprakash offered a spirited and determined fight-back.

To start with, Ramprakash was more assertive than usual, first against pace and then Ian Salisbury's spin. It may be too much to hope that the message has begun to sink in after his omission from the touring party, but what a much better batsman he is when he plays his strokes.

Strauss, a 22-year-old left-hander, also took every chance to show off his strokes in an excellent partnership.

This match has, as much perhaps as any county game all season, illustrated the yawning gap between Test and county cricket. In this context, Brown, who has built for himself more of a reputation as a one-day player, looked a most impressive performer.

There was a crisp and decisive quality about his stroke-play, his concentration was faultless and yet one wonders if his name even cropped up in all the recent selectorial discussions - even in relation to the one-day party for South Africa.

As one lovely stroke followed another, one could but wonder how he would have made out if the bowling had been in the hands of Chris Cairns and Dion Nash, let alone Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie. A good pitch and a short boundary worked to his and Surrey's advantage, as was the quality of much of the bowling.

Four wickets fell to the new ball, which was taken at the start of the day, and Angus Fraser brought to an end the record fifth-wicket stand of 288 when Adam Hollioake tried to leave one alone which hit his bat and then removed the middle stump.

Surrey's last two wickets then added 120, leaving Middlesex to score 436 to save the follow on. Brown was last out after facing 369 balls and hitting 25 fours and four sixes in the highest score of his career.