THE decline of Surrey may not command as many column inches as the rise of Wayne Rooney, a name now known to hermits and High Court judges, but it remains the abiding topic of debate for championship devotees. Since July 12 last year, when they were 26 points clear of the pack and universally expected to swagger to another title, Surrey have won two and lost six of 15 subsequent games.

From afar it will seem that their batting failed them yesterday but so well did Kabir Ali bowl, with five for 60, assisted latterly by Matt Mason in markedly helpful conditions, that few sides would have mustered more than 200. The real problem for Surrey, as Stephen Peters and Stephen Moore elegantly demonstrated in Worcestershire’s reply, is with their bowling.

In that period of demise, Surrey have dismissed sides on average for 412 (Worcestershire, with the first division’s most successful attack, average 324 this year). Saqlain Mushtaq, absent again for this game and contemplating knee surgery, has taken 20 wickets at 41.45, Ian Salisbury 19 at 54.16 and, since last July, Jimmy Ormond 18 at 60.56.

Here, after Kabir had expertly exploited swing, variable bounce and movement off the seam, Martin Bicknell, a more inconsistent bowler than in his magnificent prime, withdrew after four overs having carried a groin problem into the match. Nobody else looked like halting an opening stand that was interrupted only by rain two overs after tea, by which stage the in-form Peters, repeatedly reaching out to drive, was 72 from 92 balls and Moore was 57.

After a 19-minute stoppage when sunshine, that rarity, caused glare on the sheets draped over the seats of the new D’Oliveira Stand, Surrey’s last seven wickets fell in 17 overs either side of lunch for 68 runs. A mobile sightscreen, summoned from the adjacent King’s School, could not help Graham Thorpe to get a bat on a superb Kabir inswinger that had him leg before for an innings of 41 that was worth twice that in other conditions. Three balls later, Kabir had Alistair Brown for a duck.

Kabir had earlier accounted for Scott Newman with a similar climbing ball. When Adam Hollioake was bowled by Mason with a ball that kept low, Kabir completed his first five-wicket bag since his single Test last August by having Bicknell leg-before to another that failed to get up.

Although Jon Batty was last out to Mason for 53, his side looked despondent in the reply and the mood was no better in a late 14-over resumption when Peters was dropped, moving to within eight runs of a third successive championship hundred at New Road.