BBC SPORT | Cricket | Counties | Thorpe back in business

County Championship D1, Southampton, day three: Surrey 418 & 422-8 (at close); Hampshire 327

Graham Thorpe celebrated his inclusion in England's Ashes tour party by marking his return to cricket with an excellent century at the Rose Bowl.

The left-hander, who missed a large chunk of the summer after deciding to take a break from the game because of personal problems, batted for more than four hours to make 143.

But he had to share the spotlight with skipper Ian Ward who followed his first innings 112 with a score of 156 - his sixth first-class century of the summer.

The new champions had a lead of 513 at the close, and will be looking to force their ninth win of the season on the final day.

Surrey lost an early wicket at the start of the day when opener Scott Newman was bowled by James Schofield for 15.

Nadeem Shahid helped Ward add 66 for the second wicket before he was caught behind off Dimitri Mascarenhas for 20, but that was merely the appetiser for the main course.

Ward collects a boundary
Ward has been in prolific form this season

Thorpe and Ward were together throughout the afternoon session and found plenty of scoring opportunities served up by Hampshire's largely inexperienced attack.

Their partnership was worth 239 and Ward overtook Warwickshire's Nick Knight as the highest run scorer of the summer as he hit a six and 24 fours.

Their partnership came to an end when Ward was stumped by Nic Pothas off James Adams, who then had Ally Brown lbw second ball.

From 332 for two, it soon became 360 for six as Thorpe fell to left-armer James Tomlinson after facing 221 deliveries and collecting 21 fours, and Jon Batty went at the same total for 13.

Batty was caught at slip off Schofield, who later bowled Ian Salisbury for figures of three for 16.

Martin Bicknell (28) was also dismissed by Tomlinson before the close, with Saqlain Mushtaq ending the day on 15 not out.

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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