ANOTHER high-scoring draw between these sides looks the most likely result as Middlesex marched comfortably towards Surrey’s score of 418 yesterday on a wicket flattening out in the sunshine.

Saqlain Mushtaq, the Pakistan off spinner, did nothing to answer his detractors, who say “he’s not the bowler he was”. Saqlain was the edge Surrey might have hoped for, but when he came on with Middlesex 100 for one after 24 overs, Owais Shah drove his first ball high over mid-on into the first-floor balcony of the pavilion. Shah and Ben Hutton matched each other stroke for stroke after tea, putting on 171 in 40 overs, before Hutton was bowled through the gate pushing forward to Ian Salisbury for 78 with two overs of the day left.

The uncomfortable fact for Surrey is that Saqlain seems diminished and Salisbury is nowhere near as effective without him in command at the other end.

Azhar Mahmood gave Surrey the perfect start, trapping Sven Koenig leg-before with one that kept a little low.

At that point, Middlesex were one for one off four overs, but Surrey fast ran out of ideas on a flat wicket as frustration set in and were embarrassed when Jonathan Batty missed one from Salisbury which hit a helmet behind him, incurring five penalty runs. Earlier, Adam Hollioake hit his seventeenth championship hundred and his third against Middlesex. It was a typically rapid affair off 119 balls and was his first century since the one he scored against Warwickshire last summer.

From an overnight 164 for two, Middlesex had reduced Surrey to 253 for six in the morning as Paul Hutchinson began to repay some of the faith John Emburey, the Middlesex coach, has shown in him. Hutchinson, a brisk left-armer, removed James Benning’s off stump with the third ball of the day, swinging the ball back into the right-hander. That swing accounted for Alistair Brown, who inside-edged to the wicketkeeper, and then nearly trapped Mark Ramprakash, who had dug in for the long haul. Next ball, Hutchinson produced the one that angles across the right-hander and Ramprakash was drawn in to edge behind.

But Hollioake and Salisbury steadied the ship, putting on 125 in 26 overs. Chad Keegan finished with five wickets, but it should not mask a poor performance in which he went for nearly seven an over. He finished the innings as he started, taking the new ball and being smashed, this time by Salisbury, for 18 in five balls before closing the innings with the sixth ball.

Watching from the boundary was Mark Butcher, who has returned from England’s tour of the West Indies after the final Test in Antigua but will not be on duty for Surrey until the first week of next month.