Stewart secures draw

Tudor and Stewart shared an important partnership

Frizzell County Championship division one, AMP Oval, day four: Surrey 220 & 332 drew with Somerset 253 & 45-1
Somerset 5 pts, Surrey 4

Match scorecard

Alec Stewart and Ian Ward snuffed out the possibility of defeat with determined half centuries to maintain Surrey's unbeaten start to the Championship campaign.

Despite Sunday's wash-out, Somerset still harboured hopes of victory at lunch after Keith Dutch dismissed Ward and Ally Brown.

Surrey were 163 ahead with only four wickets left, but a stand of 86 between Stewart and England teammate Alex Tudor made certain that the game would end in a draw.

The home side began the day on 87 for three and Somerset were soon celebrating as Matt Bulbeck had night-watchman Ian Salisbury caught behind for four.

Ward and Brown stood firm, however, and extended Surrey's lead into three figures with a fifth wicket stand of 83.

Dutch's double caused a Surrey wobble

The introduction of Dutch's off-spin tipped the game back in Somerset's favour, however, as Ward gave a catch to Peter Bowler after hitting 11 fours in his 67 and Brown was lbw for 48.

Jamie Cox rotated his bowlers after lunch in search of a further breakthrough but Stewart and Tudor dealt capably with seam and spin alike.

Stewart struck a six and six fours before Bulbeck slipped one through his defence to have him lbw for 53.

Tudor stood firm for two hours for his 44 and Martin Bicknell weighed in with an unbeaten 35 before they were finally all out.

A target of 300 in a minimum of 20 overs was way out of Somerset's reach but Marcus Trescothick's chance of pre-Test match practice was cut short when he was caught behind off Stewart for 12.

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Surrey: M A Butcher (Capt), I J Ward, M R Ramprakash, G P Thorpe, A D Brown, A J Stewart (Wkt), A J Tudor, M P Bicknell, I D K Salisbury, Saqlain Mushtaq, J Ormond.

Somerset: M E Trescothick (Capt), P D Bowler, J Cox, M Burns, K A Parsons, I D Blackwell, R J Turner (Wkt), K P Dutch, A R Caddick, M P L Bulbeck, P S Jones.

Umpires: G I Burgess and J W Holder