THIS was not the way that Surrey would have liked to mark the 2,000th first-class match to be played on their famous old ground. For the first time in championship history, they will not be challenging for the title after being relegated last year. What is more, they did not look like a team who are going to take the second division by storm.

Instead it was Derbyshire, rock bottom last season with only one win in 16 matches, who relished the fact that this fixture has been switched from their own waterlogged ground. They would not have played on such a good pitch there and Travis Birt, their latest import from Tasmania, seized the opportunity to make an immediate impact before becoming the first Derbyshire player to be out for 99 on his championship debut.

Michael Di Venuto, his fellow Tasmanian, set the pace, feasting on a liberal supply of short deliveries, especially from Rikki Clarke, to make 60 off 56 balls, with 13 fours. Chris Taylor played well for his 45, while Hassan Adnan and Ant Botha helped themselves to fifties against an attack that was always labouring after Mohammad Akram had broken down with a groin strain.

It was Birt, though, who caught the eye. The second-highest scorer in Australian cricket last winter, who was signed on Di Venuto’s recommendation, he hit four huge sixes, three off Nayan Doshi, one of which sailed over wide long-on, bounced across Harleyford Road — narrowly missing a cyclist — and finished up in Archbishop Tenison’s School playground. He also struck 15 fours before he was caught behind trying to glance Jimmy Ormond.