It takes a wolf to savage a fox...

It was a tale of two batsmen today. And, thankfully from the Rampants point of view, one of them was the maestro!

It must have looked a bit dodgy in the first half of the day. Having been stuck in by a Leicestershire side, whose off field antics had already garnered headlines prior to the match, Surrey lost both openers Harinath and Lancefield within four balls. You have to admit, 11-2 isn’t the greatest of starts, and no doubt caused hearts to sink once more amongst the Surrey support.

The skipper came in and played his usual game. I know there’s been criticism in certain quarters regarding RHB's ability to grind out a huge innings and certainly today will again have given grist for the mill, but at least his 36 from 37 balls gave Surrey some much needed impetus whilst Ramps quietly went about his business at the other end. It sounds as if Nathan Buck put in a really good display with the ball at the start for Leicestershire, but as Surrey headed towards lunch both Davies and Ramps seemed to be weathering the storm. Shortly after lunch however, it appears that Surrey surprisingly lost Davies for 19. I say surprisingly because very often this season he has proven to be one of the anchors when things have gone wrong in the batting ranks.

With young Jason Roy padded up and waiting, if required, to make his first class championship debut, Gary Wilson (who seems for good or ill to be saddled with ‘chirpy’ before his surname to the extent where people will believe this is actually his name) took to the field and immediately set about rebuilding with Ramprakash, to great effect. Wilson had a very fine innings earlier in the season against Middlesex and grabbed the opportunity he’d been given by Chris Adams with both hands. He’s certainly proved himself as a middle order batsman this year, and it will be interesting to see whether he manages to sneak into the team for the remaining games of the season. I think given his performance so far in this outing you could safely say he’d earned it.

His previous best was surpassed today by some distance, and at stumps he was just six short of a maiden first class century. It’s not ideal going into the next day, and I’m sure even a super-confident man such as Wilson will experience the odd jangling nerve tonight. Still, it will certainly be worth the wait if he gets there tomorrow! And of course, the ever remarkable Ramprakash remains, as lean and hungry as a wolf stalking its prey, with twenty three more runs required to make his own piece of batting history. Should he convert his 179no overnight to 200, he will become the county’s leading scorer of double tons, clearing Jack Hobbs tally. I’m sure the Master won’t mind if the modern Maestro sneaks past him: Hobbs has more than enough incredible records of his own, most of which will never be surpassed.

If Ramps and Wilson stick in and bat as they did today, Leicestershire could very well be looking heavenward for salvation tomorrow and praying that the reported heavy rain intervenes on their behalf!