Surrey batsmen fold at Lord's

Surrey 203 and 34 for 2 v Middlesex 445
Scorecard

Surrey's batsmen endured a day to forget as they lost 12 wickets to end 208 behind Middlesex at Lord's. With Tom Maynard, who made an unbeaten 98, the one outstanding exception, batsmen came and left with a shrug. Surrey's first innings folded in 56.3 overs and they were two down in the follow-on as Chris Adams and Rory Hamilton-Brown's youthful side had their first really disappointing outing of the season.

Given the number of poor dismissals, singling out any one batsman seems unfair. In Surrey's first innings Michael Brown pushed at a wide Steven Finn delivery for 9, but that was better than Steve Davies, who faced three balls before slashing Corey Collymore to third slip. Zander de Bruyn wasted his good form by trying to squeeze a cut that was never on in Collymore's next over to make it 19 for 4 but none of the dismissals were as frustrating as Hamilton-Brown's.

Surrey needed a captain's innings to better even Neil Dexter's hundred the day before. As ever, Hamilton-Brown was bullish in the face of crisis and struck four crisp boundaries before he'd made 20. But having reached 47 off 57 deliveries he gave it all away. A straight ball from Steven Crook deserved a straight bat. Instead he tried to whip it through midwicket and fell lbw. He is an immensely gifted player but has some way still to develop and whether captaincy is helping that is questionable.

All the while Maynard was building an impressive follow-up to his century against Glamorgan. With a rugby-player's frame he swatted Collymore into the grand stand and pushed an uppish drive that rocketed to the cover rope a ball later. As wickets fell to an array of careless shots at the other end, he progressed past fifty and registered his 1000th first-class run by lifting a towering six back over Dexter's head.

With Tim Linley for company at No. 10 he pushed a single off the first ball of Ollie Rayner's 13th over to reach 98 but ruefully watched on as Linley and Jade Dernbach edged successive deliveries to slip to leave Surrey 242 behind and following on, and Maynard deserted on 98.

There was enough time before the day was out for Finn to impress from the Pavilion End again. Brown completed his bad afternoon by edging routinely to Rayner for a duck before de Bruyn fended low to gully, unable to control a delivery that spat from a length. Like Brown, it was de Bruyn's second dismissal in the day, but at least the bowler was to blame this time. It meant each of Surrey's top four batsmen had collected ducks in the day and Middlesex could look forward to joining Lord's 'street-style' wedding party on Friday with victory in sight.