MARK RAMPRAKASH may never play for England again but he is still the best English batsman in county cricket. He proved it all over again yesterday by becoming only the fourth Surrey player to score centuries in four successive championship matches as they outclassed Lancashire in this relegation battle.

Andrew Ducat, Tom Hayward and Jack Hobbs of Oval legend were the batsman who did it before and if Ramprakash can make another hundred in his next championship match against Kent at Canterbury next week he will equal Hobbs’s record of five centuries in successive games. No one would put it past him the way he is batting.

Surrey have had a traumatic season but Ramprakash has shown his character, as well as his class, by scoring runs in abundance just when they need them most and he shows no signs of letting up.

He was on 55 when they resumed 62 runs behind Lancashire’s hopelessly inadequate 210 and he was in a class of his own as he moved inexorably to his seventh century of the season and the 73rd of his career, overtaking Graeme Hick and Ian Bell to become the summer’s leading run-maker along the way.

When he plays like he did, it seems scandalous that his 52nd Test against New Zealand at Auckland in March 2002 may have been his last but there is no bitterness when he talks about his prospects of playing for England again. He would jump at the chance, of course, but he will be 35 next month and has a lot of time for Andrew Strauss and Robert Key, not to mention Bell, who, he says, is the best young player he has seen.

He simply wants to carry on playing as long as he can and England’s loss will continue to be Surrey’s gain. He takes great satisfaction from the fact that he has continued to play as well in a struggling side as he did in a winning one in and his influence is rubbing off on those around him.

Ramprakash batted for five hours 46 minutes in scoring 134 off 246 balls, with 16 fours, and by the time Gary Keedy deceived him into chipping a catch to Carl Hooper at extra cover, Lancashire, favourites for the championship at the start of the season, looked like a team who are in grave danger of going down.

Rikki Clarke had joined Ramprakash in a third-wicket partnership of 124 before he was leg-before to Dominic Cork, Alistair Brown stroked a brisk 50 and the tail hit out lustily with Tim Murtagh striking five sixes in his 56 off 69 balls.

It was the final straw for Lancashire who were soon in trouble when they went in again, needing 315 to avoid an innings defeat. Mark Chilton was caught at short leg off Martin Bicknell’s first ball and Iain Sutcliffe and Dinesh Mongia both perished to rash strokes against Jimmy Ormond to leave them struggling at 57 for three.