Ramprakash Century Earns Surrey a Draw

After his traumatic crawl from 99 first-class centuries to 100, Mark Ramprakash has notched up No101 at the earliest possible opportunity. A washout at Chester-le-Street between Durham and Nottinghamshire, occupying the top two spots in the first division, reduced the pressure on third-placed Somerset to contrive a result, which meant Ramprakash had all day to convert his overnight 11 into three figures. He didn't even need to wait until tea.

Ramprakash was in danger of becoming a curiosity of Victorian-circus proportions while he spent 10 championship innings spread across three months failing to score as much as a fifty. But the unbeaten 112 he made against Yorkshire at Headingley on August 2 has visibly relaxed him and yesterday, in his very next first-class knock, he ensured Surrey would not fold to a humiliating last-day defeat in a game ravaged by the weather.

At 62 for three there was still scope for embarrassment for a side facing up to the real possibility of relegation, but Ramprakash – freed of his statistical burden – was in the watchful mode of old and added 139 with the more cavalier Usman Afzaal. Andrew Caddick removed Afzaal for 65, caught by the wider of two gullies, then persuaded the left-handed Matthew Spriegel to edge to third slip soon after. But Ramprakash responded by easing to his seventh first-class hundred against Somerset, after which the game became little more than a battle for bonus points.

Somerset have five matches left to push for what would be a maiden county championship title. Since two of them are against Nottinghamshire (away) and Durham (at home), their fate is very much in their own hands. Surrey, meanwhile, need to start winning if they are to avoid playing in the second division they won in 2006. More innings like this one from Ramprakash would be a start.