Surrey bat out tough draw

County Championship D1, The Oval: Surrey 304 & 254/9 drew with Sussex 493
Points: Surrey 10 Sussex 12

Full scorecard

Akram's pace left Surrey struggling early on

Sussex spinner Mushtaq Ahmed claimed his 1000th first-class wicket but Surrey held on for a draw at The Oval.

The visitors had their sights on a heavy season-opening victory when they had Surrey 88-7, still 101 behind.

Mushtaq, 33, bowled Martin Bicknell for 37 but Scott Newman hit an unbeaten 86 to take the home side ahead.

After the third day was washed out, the visitors extended their first innings total to 493, Jason Lewry making 72 and Mohammad Akram 31 not out.

Surrey were in serious danger of defeat at 88 for seven with Mohammed Akram (4-85) and Robin Martin-Jenkins (3-47) leading the bowling.

Newman was forced to bat at seven after injuring a hamstring in the field, batted patiently in a 100-partnership with Bicknell.

It is nice to come here and boss the bosses Chris Adams

And his six off Akram into the building site at the Vauxhall Road End convinced visiting captain Chris Adams to agree a draw.

Nevertheless, Adams believes Sussex have set the tone for their title defence after dominating their opening match.

"You do not often play Surrey and come away with all the points inside three days, so we will take a lot of positives out of this," he said.

"If we play to that level of commitment and performance throughout the whole year we will not only win the title again we will do it by some margin.

"But to do that it will take a monumental effort from everyone."

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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.