When Surrey bat like this it is hard to believe they have become such a poor one-day team. In 2003, they won the first division of this competition as well the inaugural Twenty20 Cup. This easy win took them off the bottom of the second division after defeats in their first two games. For Derbyshire, who are believed to be ready to appoint John Morris as director of cricket tomorrow, this was their fourth defeat in five games.

With the rain coming down and quick runs imperative before the ten-over mark – the minimum required to constitute a game – Scott Newman brutalised Derbyshire’s seamers.

He perished in the tenth over, but his work was done, having hit 62 off 33 balls, with nine fours and three sixes – one cut flat off Graham Wagg. Surrey had 97 off ten overs, 36 beyond the Duckworth-Lewis mark to win. At the end of the thirteenth over, Surrey were offered the light and went off.

Rain delayed the start until 2.30pm, reducing the match to 35 overs a side. More rain was forecast, so Surrey made the obvious decision to bowl. With a crucial championship match, against Sussex, beginning on Tuesday, Mark Butcher and Matt Nicholson were rested.

Derbyshire made a decent start as Phil Weston and Travis Birt got them to 84 for one at the end of the fielding restrictions after 13 overs. There may be some light on Surrey’s gloomy bowling horizon in the shape of Chris Jordan, the 18-year-old England-quali-fied Barbadian, who has been catapulted from a scholarship at Dulwich College to opening the bowling for the county this month. Jordan, given the new ball ahead of Jimmy Ormond, tore in from the Pavilion End and bowled with some pace and control.

Birt chopped on to Chris Schofield for 34 off 23 balls and seven overs later Weston got a leading edge high to backward point off Ormond for 72 off 79 balls. Greg Smith swung merrily for 47 off 36 balls until he missed one off Jordan, but from 183 for three in the 28th, Derbyshire slipped to 227 for seven with Harbhajan Singh again the pick of the Surrey bowlers.