Salisbury saves Surrey

Ian Salisbury © Getty Images

Ian Salisbury spearheaded a fine recovery by Surrey in their Liverpool Victoria County Championship match against Essex at Colchester.

But it was with the bat and not in his more accustomed role as a leg-spinner that he came up trumps to rescue the Second Division leaders.

Salisbury came in with half his side back in the pavilion and the total a mere 134, then watched another wicket go down 13 runs later.

He rescued his side with a superb 74, however, to pave the way for a healthy total of 330 all out, to which Essex replied with 32 for two before the close.

Salisbury’s 62-ball half century contained 11 fours and he went on to collect a further four boundaries before pushing a simple catch to Mark Pettini at short leg to give off-spinner James Middlebrook his only success.

It was Ravi Bopara and Andy Bichel who were chiefly responsible for Surrey's problems in a highly entertaining opening session in which they claimed five of the six wickets to fall.

Even so, the visitors scored so freely that they advanced to 147 in that first session and 128 of those runs arrived in boundaries with Stewart Walters gathering 10 fours in his 41.

Scott Newman made 41 with the help of eight fours and a six, while Ali Brown struck seven fours in his 36, during which he passed 1,000 first-class runs for the summer.

Essex must have thought they would bring Surrey's resistance to a swift conclusion when Salisbury was eighth out, but Neil Saker and Nayan Doshi had other ideas.

The ninth-wicket pair shared a half-century stand before Doshi was removed by Bopara.

Bopara also wrapped up the innings when he had Mohammad Akram caught behind to complete his first five-wicket haul in the championship at a cost of 75.

Saker also had something to smile about as he finished unbeaten on 58, his maiden half-century at championship level.

Essex suffered a double blow in the sixth over of their reply as Azhar Mahmood got rid of Varun Chopra and nightwatchman Mervin Westfield with successive deliveries.

It all left Surrey feeling very satisfied with their day's work after they had been forced to go into action without Mark Ramprakash, the country's leading run-scorer with over 2000 runs, Rikki Clarke and Anil Kumble.

The latter two were missing through injury while the absence of Ramprakash was put down to personal reasons.