Ramprakash Doubles Up to Beat Lancashire Into the Record Books
County championship: Mark Ramprakash forced Lancs to put their title celebrations hold as he knocked 196 and 130 not out.
The few dozen Lancastrians who traveled south this week hoping to celebrate the county's first outright championship since 1934 had the consolation of witnessing Mark Ramprakash create his own piece of county history yesterday.
Ramprakash followed his 196 in the first innings with an unbeaten 130 to pass 2,000 first-class runs for the second successive season, and becomes the first player ever to average more than 100 in consecutive English summers.
Geoffrey Boycott is the only other man to have recorded a three-figure average in two separate seasons since the war, in 1971 and 1979, and since then only Graham Gooch in 1990 and Damien Martyn on the 2001 Ashes tour had achieved the feat until Ramprakash did it last year.
The 38-year-old did not argue with those who claimed that his record of 2,278 runs at an average of 103.54 last season was devalued because his runs came in the Second Division, and he will take greater satisfaction from this year's performances at the higher level. This was his 10th century of the season and his 97th in all, and the sixth time he has reached three figures in each innings of a first-class match - a tally bettered only by Ricky Ponting, Zaheer Abbas and Wally Hammond.
Lancashire made him work harder than they had in the first innings, restricting him to 48 in the afternoon session. Perhaps he was a little nervous, but that familiar compact and classical technique ensured that he did not offer a single chance.
It was another chastening day for the Lancashire bowlers, with Gary Keedy unable to build any pressure. Four of the five Surrey batsmen dismissed got themselves out on the pull or hook.
They could spend the winter regretting the failure to run out Ramprakash for a duck in the first innings, but this match has confirmed the suspicions of many long-term Lancashire watchers that this is not a team worthy of ending their 73-year wait for county cricket's biggest prize.
On the safe assumption that they do not reach a victory target of 489, they will now finish third behind Sussex and Durham, a respectable effort but perhaps not enough to save the captain Mark Chilton, after two poor seasons with the bat, and the long-serving cricket manager, Mike Watkinson. Stuart Law, who would be Chilton's obvious successor, is out of contract and has attracted interest from two counties on the south coast. If he is allowed to leave, the members will be even less happy.
Ramprakash followed his 196 in the first innings with an unbeaten 130 to pass 2,000 first-class runs for the second successive season, and becomes the first player ever to average more than 100 in consecutive English summers.
Geoffrey Boycott is the only other man to have recorded a three-figure average in two separate seasons since the war, in 1971 and 1979, and since then only Graham Gooch in 1990 and Damien Martyn on the 2001 Ashes tour had achieved the feat until Ramprakash did it last year.
The 38-year-old did not argue with those who claimed that his record of 2,278 runs at an average of 103.54 last season was devalued because his runs came in the Second Division, and he will take greater satisfaction from this year's performances at the higher level. This was his 10th century of the season and his 97th in all, and the sixth time he has reached three figures in each innings of a first-class match - a tally bettered only by Ricky Ponting, Zaheer Abbas and Wally Hammond.
Lancashire made him work harder than they had in the first innings, restricting him to 48 in the afternoon session. Perhaps he was a little nervous, but that familiar compact and classical technique ensured that he did not offer a single chance.
It was another chastening day for the Lancashire bowlers, with Gary Keedy unable to build any pressure. Four of the five Surrey batsmen dismissed got themselves out on the pull or hook.
They could spend the winter regretting the failure to run out Ramprakash for a duck in the first innings, but this match has confirmed the suspicions of many long-term Lancashire watchers that this is not a team worthy of ending their 73-year wait for county cricket's biggest prize.
On the safe assumption that they do not reach a victory target of 489, they will now finish third behind Sussex and Durham, a respectable effort but perhaps not enough to save the captain Mark Chilton, after two poor seasons with the bat, and the long-serving cricket manager, Mike Watkinson. Stuart Law, who would be Chilton's obvious successor, is out of contract and has attracted interest from two counties on the south coast. If he is allowed to leave, the members will be even less happy.
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