THE CRICKET at the St Lawrence Ground yesterday was played on two distinctly different levels. One was a county match between Kent, seeking to become first division champions, and Surrey, who need to contrive what they can from this rain-affected match to avoid relegation. The other was a game within the game enacted by Mark Ramprakash, who scored a masterly century, the 103rd of his unfathomable career.

No one else on either side could have batted like this. Ramprakash came to the wicket in the first over of the day and stayed until he had made 127, untroubled by pace and spin alike other than giving one chance when he was on 31. He reached his half-century with a six over cover off Ryan McLaren, a bowler good enough to be coveted by his native South Africa, cleared one short boundary five other times and otherwise stroked and glanced his way to his 50th century for his adopted county.

The pity was that so few spectators were present to watch him, which had much to do with the first two days being almost completely washed out and only 20 minutes being possible before lunch. At least this was one match in which there was some cricket, for other than at Lord’s, where Middlesex drew with Gloucestershire, all other fixtures were abandoned without a ball bowled.

Surrey face a choice today between garnering as many bonus points as possible or attempting to gain a victory through enticing Kent into a run chase. For the time being, there is no change at the top of the first division table. Indeed, the counties are so closely bunched that Kent could yet be relegated. Theirs has been a hotchpotch of a season: a fair amount of success in the one-day game on the field; off it, an ill-conceived attempted redevelopment at one of the most evocative grounds in the country, that is doomed in the recession. There is strength in depth, but for the good of English cricket a chance must be given to Sam Northeast, a Kent-born 18-year-old batsman, ahead of assorted South Africans and Pakistanis.

Back to Ramprakash. He came to the crease when Scott Newman had his off stump knocked out by Robbie Joseph and was swiftly punching the same bowler off the back foot to the cover boundary. Another followed off the front foot through what was nothing more than a well-timed push, and his flicks for six off Yasir Arafat and Darren Stevens were in that same position earlier in the day. Had he held the chance, which was not that difficult, he would only have deprived us of the only performance of note throughout the country all day. quite something. He was 39 last week but he is so fit an all-run four is easily accomplished.

Also quite something was the fact that his 127 runs were made out of 186 in conditions, it should be remembered, in which Kent had put Surrey in to bat. There was a short-arm jab for six off Amjad Khan, followed by two more sixes easily picked up, the ball sent each time on to or close by the cars parked too close to the boundary in front of Old Dover Road. The only surprise was that Ramprakash was caught at slip, having struck 12 fours and those six sixes.

No one else played any kind of innings, by comparison or not. Chris Murtagh, the younger brother of Tim of Middlesex, scratched around for nine runs before he edged Arafat to Geraint Jones. Jon Batty was well held by Stevens at third man attempting an uppercut and James Benning soon taken at slip by James Tredwell, who had missed Ramprakash