Barely a month into the season, Mark Ramprakash has four more hundreds to his name in the LV County Championship to follow the eight he made last year. Yesterday’s century, his 91st, took him past 2,000 first-class runs against Sussex, who paid heavily for dropped catches on a day when nothing went right for them.

Those detractors who were keen to point out that Ramprakash’s truckload of runs last summer – all 2,211 of them – came against second-division attacks must now accept that the bowling will make scant difference to county cricket’s supreme performer. John Poland, Surrey’s former president, excitedly hailed him yesterday as the best batsman in the world, and who could blame him? Ramprakash has become a master of his craft.

Being the perfectionist that he is, Ramprakash will doubtless admit that he has played more complete innings than yesterday’s, for he gave chances on 75, 79 and 114. A couple of false strokes against Mushtaq Ahmed as he approached his eighth first-class hundred against Sussex almost cost him his wicket, and he did play and miss a few times. Batting, though, was not always straightforward on a cool, grey afternoon that the umpires aptly described as “unpleasantly fit” before bad light finally ended play at 5.50pm.

Throughout, Ramprakash’s footwork was as twinkle-toed as it had been on Strictly Come Dancing last winter. From the moment, early in his innings, that he shimmied down the pitch to lift Mushtaq over long-off for six, he imposed his authority. He would have been run out next ball, on 12, had Chris Nash’s throw from only five yards hit, but chastened by his own faulty call, Ramprakash eschewed any further misjudgment. Playing the ball late and close to his body, he reached a faultless 50 from 70 balls.

His duel with Rana Naved-ul-Hasan made for compelling watching. Naved passed his bat on more than one occasion, but Ramprakash played perhaps the shot of the day off the Pakistan fast bowler when he drove a length ball memorably down the ground for one of his 18 fours. The stroke with which he reached his 100 from 134 balls, a glorious cover-driven four off Mushtaq, was repeated next ball for anyone who had missed it.

Sussex were left to rue one particularly bad miss when Chris Adams dropped Mark Butcher on ten at second slip off Robin Martin-Jenkins. The stand with Ramprakash was worth only 39 at the time, and by the close, it had grown to 199 in 45 overs.

Butcher, although less fluent than Ramprakash, played some neat strokes in his unbeaten 75, including one superb drive through extra cover off Mushtaq. The leg spinner was stymied primarily by the lack of pace in the pitch, batsmen being able to play him off the back foot. Scott Newman and Jonathan Batty did a valuable job for their side when batting was at its hardest in the first session. They enjoyed some good fortune, notably against Naved, but laid the foundations for what should be a sizeable total.

Newman eventually perished to a top-edged pull before Batty, playing fractionally too early, thick-edged a catch to gully, where James Kirtley held a sharp, low catch.