The wait is finally over. Shortly after tea on Saturday, Mark Ramprakash cut a ball from David Wainwright, the Yorkshire left-arm spinner, for four at Headingley Carnegie to create a moment of history. The Surrey batsman became the first man in ten years to make 100 first-class centuries, the 25th in the history of the game and possibly the last.

It had been a frustrating three months for Ramprakash, who scored 18 hundreds in 2006 and 2007 to reach 97 for his career and trigger calls for him to be recalled by England. After advancing to 99 hundreds by the start of May, many predicted that No100 was just round the corner.

When he failed on the first attempt, at the Rose Bowl, there was jokey speculation in county press boxes that Surrey had told Ramprakash he would lose this season's benefit if he didn't score the historic hundred at the Brit Oval. By last week, with his highest score in nine innings only 48, the joking was over. Anywhere would do.

Some wondered if the mental frailty that had stopped Ramprakash from fulfilling his potential for England had returned. Was the pressure getting to him? Ramprakash suggested that the loss of his favourite bat had been the problem. “After scoring the 99th, I broke the bat I've been using for the past two years,” Ramprakash said. “I've used five bats and I've not played that well.”

Ramprakash's hundred on Saturday was chanceless, coming off 196 balls with nine fours and a six. On 88 at tea, it took him four overs to clear the rubicon after the resumption. Nine overs later, the heavens opened and the match was abandoned as a draw.

Ramprakash's historic hundred came at the ground where he had scored his first first-class hundred, half his life ago in 1989. “When I started out I never dreamt about making that many hundreds, but I'll take it now,” Ramprakash said.

He became the fifth Surrey batsman to join the 100 Club, matching Jack Hobbs, Andrew Sandham, Tom Hayward and John Edrich, who will all be honoured when the restaurant on the fourth floor of the Pavilion at the Oval is renamed The Hundred 100s Bar. Ramprakash also received a silver salver from the county, which he joined from Middlesex in 2001.

Only nine of the 25 men to reach the landmark are alive. Graeme Hick was the previous batsman to achieve it, in 1998, and among the others are Graham Gooch, Viv Richards and Geoff Boycott, whose 100th hundred also came at Headingley in a Test match. The Lord's Taverners, in anticipation of the feat, have organised a dinner for the centurions on September 1.

Ramprakash may be the last man to achieve the feat given shorter careers and fewer first-class matches these days. Of the chasing pack, Justin Langer has 83 hundreds, Stuart Law 79 and Ricky Ponting 69, but all are nearing the end of their careers.

Man of the century

676 Innings it took Mark Ramprakash to reach 100 hundreds, the eighth fastest of the 25 men to get there

197 Runs scored in ten innings between 99th and 100th hundred

13 Scores over 200, the best being 301 not out against Northamptonshire in 2006

2 Hundreds for England, 154 v West Indies and 133 v Australia

Source: cricketarchive.co.uk