Surrey hold up champions

County Championship D1, The Oval: Sussex 75-0 v Surrey 304

Full scorecard

Newman and Batty open the season for Surrey

Sussex ran into a battling Surrey lower order on the opening day of their Championship defence at The Oval.

But the visitors had posted 75-0 by stumps, with former Surrey opener Ian Ward 44 not out.

The hosts fought back from 121-6 to 304 all out after a dashing 84 from Azhar Mahmood, plus solid knocks from Martin Bicknell (45) and Iain Salisbury (40).

Robin Martin-Jenkins was the pick of the attack with 4-59 but Mushtaq Ahmed was hammered for 72 runs in 13 overs.

Jason Lewry added the wicket of Mahmood, caught in the slips, to take his tally for the day to 3-60.

New Surrey captain Jonathan Batty made just 10 before he was trapped lbw by the left-armer.

But his former opening partner Ward was in fine form late in the day, striking seven fours and a six, in a brisk partnership with Richard Montgomerie, who went to stumps 24 not out.

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On a good pitch, Martin-Jenkins believed Surrey's performance was below par.

"I think they will be kicking themselves really, because they threw it away," he said.

"If we had batted first I think we would certainly have wanted to get 400."

Surrey were forced to manage without pace bowler Alex Tudor who is suffering from a recurrence of a lower back problem and Saqlain Mushtaq also missed out on a place in the side.

Sussex skipper Chris Adams was passed fit following elbow surgery.

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Surrey: J N Batty (Capt, Wkt), S A Newman, M R Ramprakash J G E Benning, A D Brown, A J Hollioake, Azhar Mahmood I D K Salisbury, M P Bicknell, T J Murtagh, J Ormond.

Sussex: I J Ward, R R Montgomerie, M W Goodwin, C J Adams (Capt) T R Ambrose (Wkt), R S C Martin-Jenkins, M J Prior, K J Innes Mohammad Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, J D Lewry.