Flintoff hits Surrey hard

Flintoff's excellent innings finally comes to an end

County Championship D1, AMP Oval: Surrey 106-7 v Lancashire 320 all out

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Pre-season favourites Surrey suffered a poor day at the Oval as Lancashire, winners of their first two Championship matches, grabbed an early advantage.

Andy Flintoff blasted his way to a typically rapid century to make up for lost time, and then took the wickets of Ali Brown and Alec Stewart.

That left Surrey reeling 214 runs behind with just three first-innings wickets remaining.

The England all-rounder, making his first championship appearance of the season, again took a liking to Surrey's attack as he cracked a magnificent 106-ball 137.

Leg-side runs for the unstoppable Freddie

Flintoff smashed his way to three figures in just 75 balls and was particularly severe on Alex Tudor and Azhar Mahmood as the Red Rose county rattled up 320.

It is not the first time title-favourites Surrey, or Tudor, have suffered at the hands of the burly 24-year-old.

In their championship game at Old Trafford in 1998 he hit 61 in 24 balls, with 34 of them coming in one Tudor over.

He then followed that with a match-winning 111-ball 135 not out in a Benson & Hedges Cup quarter-final at The Oval two years ago.

Wednesday's knock was ended when he was stumped by Stewart off Ian Salisbury, who somehow managed to escape the worst of the punishment to claim three for 30.

Sorry Surrey

Glen Chapple then took over a temproary starring role as Surrey limped to a sorry 106 for seven at the close.

Chapple removed Mark Butcher (12), Mark Ramprakash (5), and Graham Thorpe (0).

A 48-run partnership between Ian Ward and Ali Brown (16) was ended when Ward was run out for 48.

Then Flintoff got in on the act, removing Brown for 16 and Stewart for a duck to cap an inceident-packed day at the AMP Oval.

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Surrey (from): I Ward, M Butcher (capt), M Ramprakash, G Thorpe, A Brown, A Stewart (wkt), Azhar Mahmood, A Tudor, M Bicknell, I Salisbury, J Ormond, E Giddins.

Lancashire (from): M Chilton, A Swann, D Byas, S Law, G Lloyd, A Flintoff, W Hegg (capt, wkt), C Schofield, G Chapple, K Hogg, G Keedy.