Full marks for Ramprakash

Mark Ramprakash drives in style en route to 85 © Getty Images

Surrey skipper Mark Butcher praised the contribution of Mark Ramprakash in helping Surrey to reach their fourth successive Twenty20 Cup semi-final.

Ramprakash smashed 85 off 50 balls with 10 fours and three sixes as Surrey recorded an
80-run win over Gloucestershire at Bristol.

They posted 224 for five - their highest total in the competition and one which Gloucestershire never challenged before being dismissed for 144 in 18.5 overs.

Butcher said: “James Benning has been magnificent for us in the competition, as has Alistair Brown.

“They are a couple of fearsome people at the top of the order - but perhaps the unsung guy has been ’Ramps’.

“He has scored runs in every game at an extraordinary rate. Just because he is such a classical batsman, people tend not to look at him as a Twenty20 player, but he can smash it when he wants to.

“He is loving it. It is batting without a bit of pressure.

“Being a number three and four all his career in first-class cricket, you are often in repairing things and you don’t often get to go in and just open your shoulders like that.”

Surrey have been a dominant force in the competition, winner in 2003, runners-up in 2004 and semi-finalists last summer.

Butcher said: “What brings the best out of us? It is probably because we don’t have to think too much about it, to be honest.

“It is one of the things maybe that people don’t like about Surrey - that there is a sort of arrogance and over-confidence - and I think that helps in this competition.

“You just go out and expect to hit the ball out of the park and expect to get people out when you toss the ball up and that’s what we have done. Other teams like Leicestershire have also made great strides.

“They have worked out more of a strategy to it, whereas we have probably been a little bit looser, but it is a great competition and we love it.”