Surrey reach 289/6 at the close of play at Guildford

After their back-to-back Championship victories at the SSE SWALEC against Essex and Northamptonshire, Glamorgan arrived in Guildford looking for a third successive victory. May 2010 was the last time they achieved this feat as during that month five years ago they defeated both Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire at Cardiff by the margin of an innings and 4 runs, before beating Leicestershire at Grace Road by ten wickets.


The Welsh county made one change to their line-up with David Lloyd replacing Ruaidhri Smith. In contrast, there were wholesale changes to the Surrey side with Jason Roy on England one-day duty, Kumar Sangakkara back home in Sri Lanka for a Test Match later this week, Steven Davies injured and both Moises Henriques and Rory Burns still in hospital after their horrendous collision yesterday in the Twenty20 match at Arundel which saw the two fielders sustain a fractured jaw, and facial lacerations respectively.


It was Arul Harinath who opened the batting with Zafar Ansari, with each man striking a four in the opening overs from Michael Hogan and Graham Wagg, with Harinath clipping a ball to mid-wicket and Ansari guiding one through the slips. Hogan beat the outside edge of Ansari's bat on several occasions during his opening salvo from the Pavilion End.


Andrew Salter then entered the attack after ten overs with Craig Meschede also replacing Wagg at the Railway End. After a short stoppage because of sun reflecting from car windscreens at the Pavilion End, Harinath clipped Salter through mid-wicket for four before lofting him to long-on and square-leg from successive balls. After three successive maidens, Meschede conceded a single as Ansari brought up the fifty. Harinath then cover drove Meschede before sweeping Salter for another boundary.


Harinath then got a thick edge to a ball from Meschede which sent the ball speeding to the ropes at third man and almost into a large jug of Pimm's in one of the hospitality tents which lined the boundary at this Festival venue. Hogan then returned in tandem with Lloyd shortly before lunch as Harinath completed an 82-ball fifty on his first Championship appearance of the summer and only after Burns' horrible accident yesterday. Harinath also survived a sharp chance at second slip just before the interval as he edged Hogan .

Resuming on 92/1 after lunch, Zafar Ansari greeted the return of Graham Wagg by cover driving him for four, before guiding him through the slips for four as the hundred came up in the 32^nd over. Arul Harinath then spliced Wagg over the head of the slip cordon, before pulling Meschede to fine-leg. Ansari also clipped Wagg to the ropes at square-leg before Andrew Salter returned at the Pavilion End, The off-spinner nearly ended Harinath's stay at the crease as the opener spliced an expansive drive just short of David Lloyd who was running in from the cover boundary.


Ansari then unfurled a sumptuous off-drive for four against Wagg before completing a 130-ball fifty by on-driving Salter for a single. Harinath also cover-drove Salter with panache as he added further to his boundary tally, before pulling Hogan for four. He then deftly cut Salter for three before under-edging a drive against Salter to fine-leg as the left-hander fortuitously completed his hundred from 157 deliveries.

Arul Harinath struck the first ball after tea from Michael Hogan into the leg-side to bring up the double-hundred stand, but in the Australian's next over he slapped a short ball straight into Salter's hands at point, as the opening stand ended four short of Surrey's best against the Welsh county which remains as 212 by John Edrich and Alan Butcher at Sophia Gardens in 1977.


Dominic Sibley began by crisply glancing Wagg to square-leg for a couple of fours, before cover-driving the left-armer. He then pulled David Lloyd for four before despatching him through extra cover, but the bowler gained revenge next ball as Sibley edged to second slip.


This was the first of three wickets to tumble in as many overs as 241/2 became 243/3 as Ben Foakes edged a drive against Lloyd into Wallace's gloves, and with a further single added Vikram Solanki edged Meschede into Wallace's gloves. Aneesh Kapil began with a series of singles before on-driving Lloyd for four, followed next over by a pull for four against Colin Ingram's leg-spin as Glamorgan opted not to take the new ball, and continue with spin until the 91^st over.


Michael Hogan and Graham Wagg then returned for the closing overs, with Ansari driving Wagg through the covers for his first boundary in 150 balls, before four balls later repeating the stroke. But in his next over Wagg removed Kapil l.b.w. as night-watchman Stuart Meaker joined Ansari. But in the day's final over Meaker departed l.b.w. to Wagg to end a good final session for the Welsh county.