Cricket: Surrey Grateful to Ramprakash's Twinkle Toes

Surrey are currently advertising next month's Twenty20 Cup by circulating an online video which features Mark Ramprakash celebrating a slog for six with some twinkle-toed dance moves. To a wider audience he will forever be the winner of Strictly Come Dancing, but to county bowlers he remains a batting phenomenon. Yesterday's century in the victory over Sussex felt as inevitable as the deckchairs and seagulls.

Ramprakash is already the leading run-scorer in the County Championship this season, having hit four hundreds in five matches, including an unbeaten 266 here last week. But even at the age of 37 he can quickstep it in the one-day arena, too, and his undefeated 142 from 140 balls, only five runs short of equaling his limited-overs best, formed just over half the Surrey total en route to a win that preserves their unbeaten record in the South Conference. A semi-final place is in their grasp.

It was yet another excuse to dust off the what-ifs that accompany every assessment of Ramprakash's unfulfilled international career. He drove, pulled and swept six sixes - three off the suffering Luke Wright - to go with 10 elegant fours and looked a cut above any batsman on either side until Murray Goodwin threatened to make a game of it under the floodlights.

Sussex must now win their remaining four group matches to stand any chance of retaining the trophy. At 75 for three, with Chris Adams the victim of a blistering one-handed diving catch at backward point by James Benning, they were out of it. But Goodwin, who had made 119 and 205 not out in the championship fixture between the sides, added 95 with Chris Nash and helped reduce the equation to 75 off 10 when, to his obvious frustration, he began to lose the strike.

The beneficiary was Chris Schofield, the leg-spinner who is trying to rebuild his career at Surrey after being burdened with unfair comparisons to Shane Warne in his younger days. Schofield took four wickets in four overs of panicked swipes, and when, amid the mayhem, Goodwin drove Azhar Mahmood to long-on to depart for 86 from 78 balls, it was game up. He looked as furious as Ramprakash had been serene.