COMPETITION bests from Rikki Clarke and Mark Ramprakash, who thrashed 139 in 12 pulsating overs together, propelled Surrey into their fourth successive Twenty20 Cup finals day.

The Brown Caps amassed their highest total in the competition, 224, Gloucestershire disappointing a capacity 8,000 crowd by never looking as if they would get close.

Surrey set the tone for the mayhem of their innings with a boundary off the first ball. Although Alistair Brown was caught at slip in the second over, Ramprakash joined James Benning to help to thrash 56 off the next five. Benning, who hammered an unbeaten 189 here in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy last month, crashed 29 off 16 balls with six fours.

When Mark Butcher was third out at 80 in the eighth over, caught on the mid-wicket boundary sweeping, the Gladiators would have been hoping to keep Surrey to less than 200. They might have done so had Clarke not been dropped on 32 and 39, the first a regulation chance to long-on where Dave Brown was the culprit.

Clarke had already hit Gloucestershire’s most consistently economical Twenty20 bowler, Martyn Ball, out of the attack after smashing him for successive sixes into the pavilion. He intensified his assault after his reprieve, lifting sixes off Alex Gidman, Ian Fisher and Ian Harvey, the last a majestic drive over extra cover.

Ramprakash, not to be outdone, struck three sixes, the first off his second ball when he drilled Harvey straight back over his head. He also hit ten fours, falling in the final over for a superbly made 85 off 50 balls. Clarke carted the last ball for his fifth four to finish with 79 off 42 balls, taking Surrey past their previous highest total of 221.

Gloucestershire’s reply began badly when Harvey played and missed at four balls from Azhar Mahmood. Craig Spearman top-edged to deep square in the third over and Mark Hardinges was brilliantly run out from mid-on by a direct hit from Stewart Walters, who was deputising for Ramprakash, who had suffered a back spasm.

When Harvey chopped on a ball from Anil Kumble to be third out at 58 in the seventh over, the Gladiators’ best hope of an unlikely escape had gone.