Warwickshire make Surrey pay for unwise call on home turf

Warwickshire, the County Championship leaders, enjoyed another excellent day after Surrey made a complete hash of winning what looked to be a crucial toss at The Oval. When the visiting captain, Jim Troughton, called incorrectly, the home side had no hesitation in choosing to bat first on a pale, firm track. They no doubt envisaged batting until maybe tea on the second day with perhaps 500 in the bank. Instead they were dismissed for a meagre 223 by a Warwickshire seam attack full of confidence having underpinned their side's rise to the top of the table. Chris Wright led the way with three wickets and Keith Barker and Chris Woakes chipped in with two apiece but, most agonisingly for Surrey, two top-order wickets were thrown away by horrible run out mix-ups. Steven Davis was looking dangerous on 34 when he was beaten by a direct hit from the wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose, who darted from behind the stumps. If that was poor running, there was then an element of slapstick about the departure of Rory Hamilton-Brown, also for 34. He played the ball to mid-on and set off for a single only for Tom Maynard not to move. The Surrey captain was run out by half the length of the pitch as his opposing number Troughton lobbed the ball gently to the stumps. Left with the last session to bat, Warwickshire's highly satisfactory day was completed by their solid progress to 106 for one by the close. Ian Westwood edged Jade Dernbach into the slips in the ninth over but Varun Chopra and Will Porterfield added an unbroken 89 up to stumps. Chopra rounded off the day with a sumptuous cover-driven four off Gareth Batty. The former Essex batsman, who has scored four first-class centuries already in 2012 (two in Sri Lanka in January and two this English season) again showed the class that has driven him into the thoughts of the England selectors.