BBC SPORT | Cricket | Counties | Thorpe fails on return

County Championship D1, Southampton, day one of four: Surrey 348-7 v Hampshire

Graham Thorpe marked his return to cricket with a failure - on a day Surrey chairman Mike Soper heaped upon him the highest of praise.

Thorpe, playing his first game for two months, made just 19 as the newly crowned champions finished day one against relegated Hampshire on 348 for seven.

"I think he's the best left-hander in the world," Soper said of Thorpe, whose marital problems have come before cricket this summer.

Soper, speaking to Sport on 5 Live, added: "I'm very pleased for him as I know he went through a lot of problems.

Thorpe's troubled times

"It's all very easy for people to say he should do this or he should do that. But when you're in it yourself you can't always get out of it and I think he's done very well."

On Tuesday Thorpe was named in a 16-man squad for the Ashes tour.

Captain Ian Ward was the star with the bat at the Rose Bowl, hitting his fifth Championship century of the season.

He had moved serenely along to 112 off 188 balls before he was unfortunately run out by Thorpe.

Ian Ward has had a superb season for Surrey

Surrey, who won the toss, lost opener Scott Newman for four but enjoyed a period of domination thereafter.

Ward and Nadeem Shahid took Surrey along to 205 for two before the latter was removed by James Schofield for 82.

Shahid's dismissal sparked something of a collapse, with the next four wickets falling for 34 runs.

Thorpe was one of the batsmen to fall in that time when Shaun Udal bowled him to pick up one of three scalps.

Thorpe was not overly disappointed by his low-key return, saying he was just happy to be playing again.

"It's nice to be back, just nice to be playing again," he said.

"I have had a few indoor nets but I did feel a bit rusty out there.

"I would have liked to have been out there a bit longer and running out the captain is not a good idea."

Hampshire: N C Johnson, J S Laney, J P Crawley, J H K Adams, W S Kendall (Capt), J D Francis, N Pothas (Wkt), A D Mascarenhas, S D Udal, J E K Schofield, J A Tomlinson.

Surrey: S A Newman, I J Ward (Capt), N Shahid, G P Thorpe, A D Brown, J N Batty (Wkt), M P Bicknell, I D K Salisbury, Saqlain Mushtaq, J Ormond, T J Murtagh.

Umpires: J W Holder and J F Steele


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