Despite settling quickly at the third county of his 13-year career after his winter move from Northamptonshire, Usman Afzaal must have felt under pressure when walking out to bat yesterday with only 35 runs from three Friends Provident Trophy innings this season. By the end of a balmy, floodlit evening, however, Afzaal was celebrating not only a beautifully paced 126 not out from 105 balls, but also the key wicket of Murray Goodwin, deceived and stumped off his left-arm spin, as Surrey completed a comfortable victory to keep alive their hopes of quarter-final qualification.

Afzaal, 30, who played three Test matches for England in 2001, also bowled Carl Hopkinson in a tidy ten-over spell and on this evidence will prove one of the signings of the summer.

Sussex, badly missing Matt Prior and Luke Wright, who were on England Lions duty, and the injured Mushtaq Ahmed, only flickeringly threatened through Goodwin and Chris Adams in reply to an intimidating 346 for three, a record total at Hove in this competition. The Sharks have lost three out of four and look out of contention in a strong group.

Tom Smith, 20, a left-arm spinner in only his third senior one-day appearance, was the pick of a savaged Sussex attack in which Corey Collymore, the 30-year-old former West Indies seam bowler, signed yesterday morning on a Kolpak registration, suffered a chastening debut.

Collymore's sixth and final over with the new ball cost 17, with Scott Newman hitting him four times to the boundary in five balls, and when he returned towards the end he ran into the fast hands of Alistair Brown, who hoisted him for a mid-wicket six as he and Afzaal plundered 87 from the last nine overs.

Yet Collymore was by no means alone in his suffering. Only Smith, who clung on to a sharp low catch off his own bowling in his second over to dismiss the dangerous James Benning, kept the scoring rate in check as Afzaal and Mark Ramprakash built remorselessly on a typically quickfire opening stand of 81 inside 12 overs by Newman and Benning.

Ramprakash, with whom Afzaal added 153 in 23 overs, hit Robin Martin-Jenkins for three successive fours during his 80-ball 63, while Afzaal twice drove Ollie Rayner's off spin for six in addition to his 12 fours.

Afzaal completed his hundred off 92 balls and, if anything, batted more fluently than Ramprakash, back on the ground where he scored his 99th first-class century last Saturday and where, last May, he swept to a memorable 142 not out in his previous innings against Sussex in this competition. Ramprakash plainly loves batting against Sussex. As, yesterday, did the entire Surrey top five.

Scoreboard

Surrey

S A Newman c Smith b Martin-Jenkins 43

J G E Benning c and b Smith 51

M R Ramprakash b Rayner 63

U Afzaal not out 126

A D Brown not out 40

Extras (lb 8, w 13, nb 2) 23

Total (3 wkts, 50 overs) 346

*M A Butcher, †J N Batty, C P Schofield, M J Nicholson, J W Dernbach and P T Collins did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-81, 2-106, 3-259.

Bowling: Collymore 9-0-71-0; Kirtley 9-0-74-0; Martin-Jenkins 4-1-31-1; Smith 10-1-41-1; Yardy 10-0-58-0; Rayner 8-0-63-1.

Sussex

C D Nash b Dernbach 13

†A J Hodd lbw b Nicholson 33

O P Rayner lbw b Dernbach 6

*C J Adams c Butcher b Schofield 40

M W Goodwin st Batty b Afzaal 38

M H Yardy c Newman b Nicholson 39

C D Hopkinson b Afzaal 21

R S C Martin-Jenkins not out 39

T M J Smith b Dernbach 15

R J Kirtley not out 20

Extras (lb 6, w 7, nb 2) 15

Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 279

C D Collymore did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-42, 3-81, 4-109, 5-147, 6-191, 7-207, 8-241.

Bowling: Dernbach 10-1-56-3; Collins 9-0-53-0; Nicholson 10-0-59-2; Schofield 5.5-0-26-1; Afzaal 10-1-42-2; Brown 5.1-0-37-0.

Umpires: M J Harris and B Leadbeater.

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