Ramprakash steadies Surrey in fascinating battle with Warne

Home is proving an unhappy place for Surrey these days. They suffered a drubbing at the hands of Yorkshire here last week in their first match back in the First Division.

This week it is the turn of Hampshire to heap indignity. After piling up a formidable first-innings total, thanks to a steady innings from wicketkeeper Nic Pothas and a lusty contribution from captain Shane Warne, the Australian declared, thus denying Surrey the chance of finishing them off.

The timing of the declaration allowed Hampshire four overs before lunch and they quickly got among the wickets.

Scott Newman had barely taken guard when he followed one that Dimitri Mascarenhas slanted across the left-hander and Pothas took a fine one-handed catch. That was the fourth ball of the innings and it augured ill for Surrey.

Newman's opening partner Jon Batty lasted a mere 10 minutes more before being snapped up, again by Pothas, off James Bruce, who was generating pace and bounce. It did not get any easier for Mark Ramprakash or his captain Mark Butcher. The latter got off the mark courtesy of an edged boundary off Mascarenhas, but they managed to dog it out to the interval.

Progress was slow after lunch and with heavy cloud building up Surrey had still not reached fifty when they went off for a lengthy first interruption for bad light. When they resumed Butcher was missed at third slip off James Tomlinson, second ball back.

Half a dozen overs later they were off again. It did appear that Warne could continue with his pace attack but two balls into Tomlinson's over the batsmen were offered the light and took it.

The light did not look much better when they re-emerged, but the batsmen did. They began to go for their shots, a flurry of boundaries and one big six off Mascarenhas saw Ramprakash pass fifty for the second time in three innings. More importantly the third wicket was now worth more than a hundred.

But they still had to negotiate a couple of tricky overs from Warne. The last time Ramprakash faced him was in the Ashes Test at the Oval in 2001, when he was caught for 19 off the leg spinner in England's second innings defeat. Battle was rejoined briefly yesterday evening when Ramprakash appeared untroubled, but the duel between the two promises to be fascinating on its resumption this morning.

Earlier he ran up against another immovable ninth wicket partnership in the wake of Yorkshire's record stand last week. Yesterday it was the turn of Pothas and James Bruce.

By the time Nayan Doshi broke it the pair had added 65 telling runs. At which point Warne denied Surrey the satisfaction of going on to bowl out Hampshire by declaring, leaving Pothas unbeaten on 85.