POSTURE is not generally a cricketer’s strong point: perhaps it is all that standing around in the field. As years pass, spines bend and shoulders droop. Michael Atherton was known as Captain Grumpy and Angus Fraser was once described as Eeyore without the joie de vivre.

Both survived the adverse images relatively unscathed without being obliged to sign up for the Alexander technique, but Jimmy Ormond, another who can send the sun behind the clouds in six trudges, may not be so fortunate. He did not need to be photographed without his shirt in New Zealand last year for the world to know he preferred a pint and a fag to press-ups.

He remains, however, a good swing bowler, despite the fact his relationship with the England management seemed to go belly-up Down Under. Yesterday it was impossible not to notice that he outbowled James Kirtley, who during the morning had been named in England’s 12 for the second Test.

Ormond returned Surrey’s best figures of four for 81 as the champions dismissed Sussex for 307 to take what should be a decisive first-innings lead of 173. No doubt ready for a breather, Ormond must have been grateful Adam Hollioake opted not to enforce the follow-on on a day of extreme heat and with Surrey a bowler down after Martin Bicknell left the field in mid-afternoon nursing a strained hamstring.

But, by then, Ormond had done his bit, setting Surrey on their way to what should now be another routine victory. He claimed the early wickets of Richard Montgomerie and Michael Yardy and narrowly missed adding the scalp of Murray Goodwin.

Montgomerie skied an ugly swipe to cover while the left-handed Yardy could only stab a delivery that left him to Graham Thorpe at third slip. Hollioake then turned to Ian Salisbury and his two overseas stars to take up the chase, though Ormond would return to take two more wickets and cement his place at the top of the national averages with 30 wickets at 16.4 apiece.

Ormond swings the ball, but it is his ability to extract bounce that makes him a harder proposition and Kirtley’s inability to do so that will make him vulnerable against good Test players on good pitches. Kirtley bowled 11 wicketless overs in the day, though he had Saqlain Mushtaq dropped.

Saqlain, the only man to contribute more wickets to Surrey’s 2002 championship triumph than Ormond, ripped a beauty through the defences of Goodwin, whose 60 contained 14 fours, and Saqlain later bowled Matthew Prior round his legs.

In his seven seasons with Surrey, Saqlain has generally found English techniques insufficient to cope with his myriad of tricks, though familiarity — and television exposure — has worked against him. His wickets now cost him around 25 each where once they came at around 18.

Unsurprisingly, it was the young Anglo-Australian, Tim Ambrose, who learned the game in New South Wales youth cricket, who coped with Saqlain best, eschewing sweeps and generally playing straight. His innings of 75 carried his career average above 40 before he fell to a catch in the gully in the first over of Ormond’s second spell.

Like Montgomerie, Chris Adams looked like he was getting in some early practice for the Twenty20 Cup. The Sussex captain misjudged a reckless pull to gift his wicket to Azhar Mahmood, who also accounted for Robin Martin-Jenkins, who reached 61 without ever translating Saqlain into English.

The best fun came when Mushtaq Ahmed delighted in scoring runs against the team he briefly helped out last summer, swinging his way merrily to 41 off 43 balls with six boundaries, all off Surrey’s two spinners — who had earlier treated him harshly themselves in carrying their overnight stand to 75 — before Ormond’s movement caught him plumb in front.