Surrey press ahead

Pollock shows his despair as Ward nears his century

County Championship D1, Edgbaston, day two of four: Warwickshire 345 v Surrey 319-3

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Ian Ward and Mark Ramprakash played excellent knocks to push Surrey closer to the win they need to wrap up the Championship.

Opener Ward made 114 and Ramprakash 99 as Surrey finished day two nicely placed on 319 for three, just 26 runs behind one of their closest pursuers on the Division One table.

Though Adam Hollioake's side have two more games to play after this one, victory at Edgbaston will see them clear enough to already be crowned champions.

Warwickshire did well earlier in the day to push their first-innings score out to 345 after resuming battle on 300 for nine.

The 10th-wicket pairing of Melvyn Betts and Mohammed Shiekh (19 not out) succeeded in frustrating Surrey.

They had put on 66 runs together when James Ormond removed Betts for 47 to take his fourth wicket.

Betts was soon in the action again, this time with the pads off as he had 'keeper Jonathan Batty caught by Shaun Pollock for eight.

But Surrey regained control quickly, with Ward and Ramprakash adding 204 runs for the second wicket.

Ramprakash was first to go, trapped in front of his stumps by Dougie Brown after an innings that included 14 boundaries and three sixes.

Ward followed 15 runs later when Pollock gained reward for his toil, but not before the left-hander brought up his 11th first-class ton with a knock that counted 18 fours and consumed 215 balls.

Nadeem Shahid (43 not out) and Ali Brown (25 not out) saw Surrey to stumps without any further problems, leaving the impression Thursday would bring even more joy for them.

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Warwickshire: M J Powell (Capt), N V Knight, M A Wagh, I R Bell, J O Troughton, S M Pollock, D R Brown, T Frost (Wkt), A F Giles, M A Sheikh, M M Betts.

Surrey: I J Ward, J N Batty (Wkt), M R Ramprakash, N Shahid, A D Brown, A J Hollioake (Capt), R Clarke, M P Bicknell Saqlain Mushtaq, I D K Salisbury, J Ormond.