Having won eight of their previous nine Sunday League meetings with Gloucestershire prior to yesterday, Surrey went down to their fifth defeat in seven one-day outings this season when, yet again, they finished second best in a keenly fought contest.

The Gladiators won with nine balls to spare. What was more significant was their margin of victory - one wicket.

After collapsing to 98 for seven in pursuit of 164, the home side were indebted to Martyn Ball and Jon Lewis’s rearguard action. The pair added 31 in ten overs for the ninth wicket before Lewis effectively decided it three overs from the end by clearing the square leg boundary off the bowling of Rikki Clarke.

Notwithstanding the outcome, Clarke’s performance was one of many that stood out. Had the aforementioned delivery landed five yards shy of its destination, Mark Ramprakash would almost certainly have pulled off a catch and the Lions would have triumphed by 13 runs.

Given the conditions Alistair Brown’s quickfire 54 off 41 balls was a notable achievement. The visitors’ last wicket pair - Jonathan Batty and Ed Giddins - had one of their better days, furthermore Martin Bicknell and Saqlain Mushtaq kept things tight enough to be excused bowling nine wides between them.

In the end, though, it was Jon Lewis’s undefeated 27 and four for 22 that made all the difference. The 26-year-old captured the wickets of Brown, bowled playing a premeditated straight drive, Shahid, caught at first slip, and Ramprakash and Tudor, both of whom edged behind.

Had it not been for Batty and Giddins seeing out the last ten overs, adding 31 runs in the process, Surrey would not have had a prayer. Jonathan Batty enjoyed his highest score in one-day cricket since September 1998, while Ed Giddins’s unbeaten 13 represented a career best.

The Lions failed to capitalise on the absence of Mark Alleyne and Ian Harvey, who were respectively sidelined by a stomach bug and a cracked finger. They were assisted further when, in the eleventh over, Chris Taylor strained his shoulder attempting what would have been a superb catch in the deep to dismiss Brown, who was on 41.

Taylor appeared briefly when it was looking for all world like a lost cause, with Gloucestershire six wickets down and less than halfway to their target. It looked even bleaker when the 25-year-old departed leg before and James Averis was caught at long-off seven overs later.

Only three of the Gladiators’ batsmen made it to double figures. Jeremy Snape was the first to threaten. He on and cover drove the wayward Alex Tudor for boundaries in the tenth over of the reply, then cut his way to 36 in 43 deliveries. But Martyn Ball’s 45 off 64 balls and Jon Lewis 27 in 32 proved to be even more decisive.

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