THE most noteworthy occurrence yesterday was not that Mark Butcher made 151, nor that Azhar Mahmood struck a century, but that Mark Ramprakash did not reach three figures. Having reached 2,000 championship runs in 20 innings, he was out for 77, which by his standards this season is almost a failure.

When he swept and on-drove Robert Croft for imperious sixes, nothing seemed more likely than that Ramprakash would reach his ninth century of the summer. He had also struck eight fours when he appeared to play on to James Franklin, whose post-lunch spell was the most impressive aspect of Glamorgan’s cricket.

He took three wickets in 15 balls in unhelpful conditions, which left Surrey at 198 for five, but could not remove Butcher, who made his highest score for two years, timing the ball with an ease that suggested his Test career still could be resurrected. When he was stumped just before the close, he had made 151 from 243 balls with 17 fours and two sixes.

Butcher and Azhar put on 192, a sixth-wicket record for Surrey against Glamorgan. The Pakistan all-rounder drove, reverse swept and glanced his way to a century off 132 balls with 15 fours. Their partnership passed the stand of 183 by Arthur McIntyre and Errol Holmes on this ground in 1947.