THE OVAL was all smiles yesterday, but the mood might not last for long.

Tomorrow Surrey’s chief executive, Paul Sheldon, will deliver to the England and Wales Cricket Board the findings of the club’s internal investigation into the ball-tampering that marred last week’s defeat by Nottinghamshire, at which point the optimism generated by four days of overpowering cricket could evaporate completely.

Surrey had been due to reach their conclusions at the start of this match on Wednesday, but their failure to make that deadline suggests that not everybody in the club has been as helpful as they might have been.

“I had my five cents’ worth to see whether we couldn’t get it unearthed,” said the Surrey coach, Steve Rixon.

“But at the end of the day it will all come out in the wash and we’ll get on with life. If there’s an issue they want to make a case out of, then whoever gets caught in the act will be the first to be hammered.

“Unfortunately we’re probably the ones in the spotlight at the moment.”

Rixon said his players had not allowed themselves to be distracted by the controversy, and the evidence suggests he was absolutely right.

Glamorgan resumed yesterday on 177 for two in pursuit of a purely hypothetical 525, but Michael Powell was superbly caught by the leaping Martin Bicknell in the gully for 93, and from 220 for three the innings fell away alarmingly.

The destroyers were Surrey’s second-string seamers, Mohammad Akram and Rikki Clarke. They pitched the ball up and found reverse-swing to take the last seven wickets in 31 deliveries, including David Hemp for 95, and condemn a Glamorgan side missing Matthew Elliott, Matthew Maynard, Simon Jones and Alex Wharf to their fourth defeat out of four.

They still have a long way to go to match the 12 they lost at the start of the 1922 season, but they are making a good fist of it, and the last rites were applied 20 minutes before lunch when Akram knocked back Dean Cosker’s middle stump.

Another off-field problem for Surrey surrounds Harbhajan Singh. The Indian off-spinner is still waiting for the International Cricket Council to adjudicate on the legality of his action, so the date of his long-awaited Surrey debut is up in the air.