Day two at Edgbaston was dominated by a second wicket partnership of 204 in 56 overs between the Oval outfit’s former England stars Ian Ward and Mark Ramprakash. Both batsmen deserved hundreds, but after taking the Warwickshire attack apart Ramprakash became the fourth Surrey player to perish on 99 this season.

Take nothing away from Ward, though. The enduring left-hander posted his fourth championship century this term and was instrumental in his team taking the upper hand in a game the home side can ill afford to draw let alone lose. The way things are, however, either outcome looks just as likely and if Surrey were to take a maximum twenty points from this encounter the title would be theirs.

That only four wickets fell in the day spoke volumes for the way the visitors’ attack stuck to their task after Warwickshire had won the toss and elected to bat. Ward and Ramprakash came together in the eighth over of Surrey’s reply and shared in the county’s most productive second-wicket alliance since Darren Bicknell and Graham Thorpe put on 260 at Canterbury back in 1995.

Either side of lunch Mark Ramprakash passed a thousand championship runs against Warwickshire in addition to four figures in this season’s competition. He then celebrated by sweeping and cutting Ashley Giles for successive boundaries. When the slow left-armer returned for another dart at the second-wicket pair, the former Middlesex man drove him into the upper tier of the pavilion, where John Major had been enjoying a cup of tea on the Committee Room balcony.

In consecutive overs from Brown, Ian Ward reached his half-century in 95 deliveries with his ninth boundary and Mark Ramprakash posted his in 89 balls with his eighth, which was scythed over cover. The hundred partnership arrived in 103 minutes when Ramprakash took his personal contribution to 62 by on driving Mohammad Sheikh for four.

The only chance to speak of came in the 49th over when Ward, on 81, edged Giles low and wide of Shaun Pollock at slip. But the England spinner then made way for Mark Wagh’s occasional variety, which got what it deserved as Ramprakash slog swept the former Oxford University student for two sixes in as many overs.

In the ninth over after tea Ward reached his fourth hundred of the season and posted the 200 partnership in one blow, a pull, off Dougie Brown. Moments later, however, Mark Ramprakash was walking back to the dressing room after padding up to an innocuous-looking delivery. Should it be of any consolation to the former Middlesex man, he has now made more than five hundred runs in his last five innings against Warwickshire for twice out.

Ian Ward’s four-and-a-half hour occupation ended in the first over of Pollock’s fourth spell when the left-hander toe-ended a cut to the lone slips-fieldsman Nick Knight. Ward had made 114 off 215 balls, including 18 boundaries mostly square of the wicket.

Nadeem Shahid, who struck three boundaries in the fourteenth over from South Africa’s captain, then shared in an unbeaten stand of 68 with Alistair Brown before the close.

Earlier, Melvyn Betts and Mohammad Sheikh added 45 to Warwickshire’s overnight score, thanks mainly to five overs from Ian Salisbury in which Betts hit three boundaries and Sheikh another, before Jimmy Ormond took the new ball and had the former hooking to Saqlain at deep square leg. Ormond finished with figures of four for 108, which was the first time in four innings that the former Grace Road favourite has failed to take five wickets against the midland county.

The visitors’ only casualty before lunch was Jonathan Batty, who fended Melvyn Betts to first slip after having struck the 27-year-old for two boundaries through backward point.

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