Surrey decline to take chances on pacy pitch

Surrey 382 and 246-6 dec Lancashire 194

This day's play posed vital questions, as in a penultimate chapter by Agatha Christie. Why did Surrey, 188 ahead on the first innings, not enforce a follow-on with thunder in the air? How did did Lancashire find themselves playing on a pitch that turned from the first morning, without a second spinner and facing Saqlain and Ian Salisbury?

County cricket is not, whatever the marketeers' efforts, an exact science. Despite mandatory covering, it remains heavily dependent upon the groundsman's negotiations with earth, sun, rain and wind. Surrey reckoned that there were still 350 runs in this pitch, after dismissing Lancashire cheaply, and, with almost 200 overs remaining, no chances would be taken. Groundsman Peter Marron had prepared a dry, pacy pitch to suit Lancashire's four seamers. Dry enough it proved for Warren Hegg to try spinner Gary Keedy after only 23 overs and for Ian Ward to call on Saqlain for the second over of yesterday morning with four men round the bat.

Lancashire's last three batsmen had to score 70 to avoid a follow-on. They managed another 32, due mostly to the completion of an excellent 50 by Glen Chapple, and Surrey were batting again, to some surprise, before mid-day. Chapple was less pleased when he bowled: Michael Carberry (when 18) was dropped twice at slip in the space of three balls; Ward was 68 when he was also dropped at slip.

The crowd responded when Jimmy Anderson dismissed Carberry and Mark Ramprakash with successive balls but by then Surrey were already 286 ahead and the afternoon became a speculation. Would Ward, 96 not out as the last over before tea began, declare at the interval and miss a richly-deserved century?

No, he reached 106 before holing out and let Ally Brown, Rikki Clarke and Martin Bicknell plunder another 53 runs before finally calling them in at 5.20, with lightning flashing across a blue-black sky. Rain arrived and today, when admission will be free to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Lancashire's Patron, the home side need 435 from a minimum of 96 overs, showers are forecast.