Hussain and Waugh take charge

Surrey 437 Essex 311-4

The course of this match was changed by two significant moments. The first came when an appeal for a catch behind when Nasser Hussain had made eight was rejected. The second was when Mark Waugh had smacked his way to 20 by way of boundaries. At this point he attempted to drive a delivery from Joey Benjamin and edged a chance to Mark Butcher which the second slip failed to hang on to.

Both batsmen went on to make centuries. For Hussain it was his third of the summer and given the plight of England at Edgbaston the timing could be near-perfect for this stylish batsman, who is currently mining a rich seam of form. For Waugh it was his first on his return to Essex and a welcome one.

These two have thrived as a partnership since swapping around in the order for the NatWest Trophy first-round tie up at Chester. In their next match at Ilford against Warwickshire they put on 152 and 81 in the two innings.

That and the return of Neil Williams to the attack seems to have helped Waugh, who was finding it exhausting playing a key role with bat and ball after three intensive Test series since last October against Pakistan, England and the West Indies.

But the only sign of tiredness yesterday was the lazy shot to cover when Waugh had made 126, which presented the Essex old boy Nadeem Shahid with a straightforward catch. Other than that, the Australian Test batsman was all class, bringing up the 200 partnership with his solitary six, having already driven, cut and pulled 23 fours.

He and Hussain put on 208 for the third wicket as they dragged Essex out of trouble on 44 for 2. Hussain ended the day as he had begun his innings - cautiously. He has so far occupied the crease for close on five hours and looks ominously set. Surrey can draw some consolation from the fact that their two young bowlers, Richard Nowell, the slow left armer, and the paceman Alex Tudor emerged with honours from a day of toil.

There had been a delightful finale to the Surrey innings as first Graham Kersey and then Joey Benjamin launched themselves into the Essex attack for 64 minutes of mayhem and madness during which they added a further 95 runs. The wicketkeeper Kersey first steered Surrey to their fourth batting bonus point, a rare enough achievement in itself, before going on to equal his career-best 64, made earlier this season.

Benjamin rode his luck, surviving a caught and bowled chance off Mark Ilott on 24 and plenty of edges before passing his personal best of 42 with an extravagant six over long-on, eventually perishing a tantalising one run short of his maiden half century, but the damage had been done and Surrey pride was restored.