Akram stars in Essex win

County Championship D1, The Oval, day three: Essex 464 & 48-2 beat Surrey 318 & 194 by eight wickets
Essex 22 pts, Surrey 6

Full scorecard

Mohammad Akram single-handedly tore through Surrey's batting to steer relegated Essex to an eight-wicket victory.

Akram took the first eight wickets to reduce last season's champions to 138-8, still eight runs behind after Essex posted a huge 464 in their first innings.

An understrength Surrey, who finished the season in third place, were finally dismissed for 194 after Philip Sampson offered some resistance with an unbeaten 32.

Akram's return of 8-49 represented career-best figures, surpassing his previous leading effort of 7-51.

Graham Napier broke the run of Akram wickets when he trapped Ian Salisbury before also picking up the final wicket of Neil Saker.

The visitors knocked off the runs for the loss of Will Jefferson and Alistair Cook, with Sampson claiming both scalps.

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Surrey: S A Newman, J N Batty, N Shahid, R Clarke, A D Brown J G E Benning, B J M Scott (Wkt), I D K Salisbury (Capt) T J Murtagh, P J Sampson, N C Saker.

Essex: W I Jefferson, A N Cook, A Flower (Capt), M L Pettini R S Bopara, J S Foster (Wkt), J D Middlebrook, G R Napier J P Stephenson, A J Clarke, Mohammad Akram.

Umpires: A G T Whitehead, P Willey.