Date-stamped : 17 Jun97 - 14:18 Stewart`s 200 top of class By Charles Randall at the Oval First day of four: Surrey 426-6 v Yorkshire ALEC STEWART helped himself to 200 runs of the highest class at the Oval yesterday, the surprise being that this was his first hundred at county level for two years. Apart from a quiet 40 minutes tiptoeing through the nineties, he batted with a fluency and aggression that left Yorkshire in de- spair, and he resumes this morning only six runs short of the highest score of his career. His brilliance duly enhanced his England pedigree with the Lord`s Test around the corner, though he needed a painkilling spray on a sore leg muscle when he had marched to an 84-ball fifty. Surrey`s handsome total was built on two Stewart partnerships with the Hollioake brothers, one with Ben of 141 and another with Adam of 132, this one at almost a run a ball. It was against Yorkshire last year, a defeat at Middlesbrough, that the Hollioakes played together in a championship game for the first time. The worry for Yorkshire in this match would be that the pitch took spin from the morning onwards - sharp spin at times - and Richard Stemp bowled more judiciously than his figures might suggest. Two of his wickets were slip catches off classic left- arm deliveries. Graham Thorpe was resting from Surrey, Darren Gough from York- shire, but it was a lop-sided pairing-off on yesterday`s evi- dence, because Yorkshire`s seamers suffered horribly as Surrey blades swung with relentless power through the line. Mark Butcher, who made his Test debut last week, failed to im- press during a cautious Surrey start and he was picked up neatly at second slip off Alex Morris, whose action was the closest thing to Gough. Morris happened upon a second wicket in the evening, ending Adam Hollioake`s mature 72-ball stay with a replacement ball imme- diately after the batsman`s pull for six into the road by The Crick- eters pub. Almost by way of revenge, Stewart tucked into Morris with four fours in an over, three of them with vicious trademark pulls. York- shire will have to bat well if they hope to keep up. Stewart`s spurt took him towards his 200, which he reached off the day`s penultimate ball with a hook for four off Craig White. He faced only 231 balls, and the nearest thing to a chance in 4.75 hours was almost playing on to Chris Silverwood when 20. Rarely could he have batted better. Yorkshire`s bowling, Stemp apart, was generally plain rather than poor, and Martyn Moxon`s sharp diving catch at point to dis- miss Chris Lewis looked like being the highlight of the evening until Stewart`s late flurry. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Stewart adds substance to style for unique show By Charles Randall at the Oval Second day of four: Yorkshire (226-4) trail Surrey (549) by 323 runs ALEC STEWART continued his showcase appearance at the Oval yesterday as Surrey`s remaining four wickets disappeared to leave him undefeated on 271, the highest individual score by any batsman against Yorkshire this century. Record books suggest this was the best effort by a specialist wicketkeeper in the championship since 1933, when Les Ames, of Kent, took 295 off Gloucestershire at Folkestone. Yorkshire were left needing 400 as their first target, to avoid the follow-on, when Joey Benjamin had his leg-stump knocked out at the end of Surrey`s last-wicket stand of 54, extra runs that could prove crucial. The pitch offered turn and lift without much pace, and there was enough for Saqlain Mushtaq to threaten destruction with his off-breaks, but he lacked luck, and Yorkshire batted quite well. The Pakistani`s two successive wickets in the evening - David Byas, edging to slip, and Bradley Parker, to silly point - tilted the match Surrey`s way. Stewart has been associated with exquisitely timed strokeplay rather than long innings, and it would be self-apparent that the two happening together would provide rich entertainment, perhaps even a once-in-a-lifetime experience. His highest score in four first-class innings for Surrey be- fore yesterday had been 12 - slickly made no doubt - at Derby, and last year was disappointingly unproductive. So often in the past he would be dismissed in full flow, per- haps trying one too many of his favourite pull strokes, and one wondered what would have happened if he had gone on to greater things. It happened yesterday. It was not so much the bare statistics of 36 fours and three sixes - an impressive 162 runs in boundaries - but the style in which they were made, a blend of textbook and flamboyance that is almost uniquely Stewart. In `the slot` he drove powerfully and eagerly and, as the Ben- jamin partnership blossomed, he uppercut Craig White for six over point to show that his run-power was almost uncontainable. He had the satisfaction of surpassing his father, Micky Stew- art`s best score, 227, though he was still well short of David Ward`s 294 for Surrey three years ago. Yorkshire understandably took a more artisan view of batting, and their run-making had a certain grimness about it, accentuat- ed by the dismissal of Richard Kettleborough, clean-bowled with his bat held high. Nevertheless, Martyn Moxon worked Surrey`s seam attack away well, Byas pulled the slow bowlers fruitfully and Darren Lehmann hit the ball hard whenever he could, once or twice swinging him- self off his feet for nil effect in the process, yet surviving to the close with 61. Byas and Lehmann - his fifty took only 67 balls - kept the lid on Saqlain, who, with his flat trajectory and big `rip`, looked less happy against the left-handers. Ian Salisbury`s leg-breaks were milked for runs with comfort. He once halted the game for a prolonged discussion with Adam Hol- lioake, his captain, and with the next ball produced a long- hop that Byas pulled for four. Whatever the plan was, it did not work, and Salisbury was lat- er no-balled for having three fielders behind square on the leg side. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Lehmann`s royal show Charles Randall at the Oval Third day of four: Surrey (549 & 153) lead Yorkshire (387 & 19-0) by 296 runs DARREN LEHMANN`S wife Emma chose to spend her visit to London at the Trooping of the Colour rather than watch her husband make 100 for Yorkshire in a less exotic part of the capital down among the gasometers at the Oval. Lehmann, the South Australia left-hander, had a good day at the office, helping to restrict Surrey`s lead to 162 runs, which was not big enough to convince Adam Hollioake that the fol- low-on was worth enforcing. The Red Arrows` fly-past roared close to the Oval on the way to Buckingham Palace but he missed even that because he went straight to the physiotherapist`s table after his dismissal. Without Lehmann, the match would have flown past Yorkshire. Saqlain Mushtaq`s darting off-breaks needed watching, and it was sur- prising the Pakistani added only one wicket in his 19 overs yesterday. His breakthrough was freakish, because Craig White, who had on- ly narrowly averted a Saqlain hat-trick the previous evening, lifted high to midwicket where Alastair Brown sprinted about 25 yards, slowed too early and made the catch with a despairing dive at the cost of pain in his broken right hand. Richard Blakey, however, played Saqlain with the highest skill, and Yorkshire`s fighting innings was eventually dismantled by Adam Hollioake, who nipped in with five overs of guileful medium- paced in-swing and reaped four wickets. Saqlain, having toiled for 45 overs without much luck on his championship debut, would have had every reason to throttle his captain in frustration. Lehmann resumed in the morning with 61 and, on a slow pitch, he overcame his natural distaste for being tied down. He allowed himself a huge long-on six into the pavilion but generally set- tled for the percentages during his 3.25 hours at the crease. A good in- nings. Ian Salisbury redeemed an ineffectual match by bowling Lehmann with his first ball of the day, the Australian appearing to drive over what to him was an off-spinner immediately after reaching a 145-ball hundred at the other end. White soon followed, and is still searching for his first fifty of the summer in any cricket after 21 innings. Surrey, batting second time around, found it hard to achieve enough momentum for a crushing lead. They huffed and puffed, but lost wickets too regularly for comfort, and Alec Stewart, having waltzed to 271 in the first innings, faced a contrasting situa- tion. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) By Charles Randall at the Oval Final day of four: Surrey (549 & 153) drew with Yorkshire (387 & 115-4) ALEC Stewart could hardly go into this week`s second Test against Australia in a better frame of mind after his match ag- gregate of 303 runs for Surrey. Records show that no specialist wicketkeeper has scored more heavily in any championship match. He could reflect with pleasure on his 271 not out before re- joining the England team at Lord`s tomorrow. "I played well, but I never say `that`s the best I`ve ever played` or whatev- er," he said. "Even so, it`s up there with the best. I`m in good nick, that`s for sure." His only disappointment was the rain yesterday, which prevent- ed Surrey seizing what looked like being their first win of the summer, though Darren Lehmann, still there with 57 at lunch, had other thoughts on behalf of Yorkshire. Stewart, his batting skill apart, showed supreme physical fit- ness over four days in this match - not to mention the Sunday League game - which bodes well for England. He said his gym training at Surrey had gone especially well this year in company with Jason Ratcliffe, his affable and slightly quirky team-mate, who, according to a pre-season ques- tionnaire test, is the "same character type". Ratcliffe, the former Warwickshire batsman, and Stewart being the same characters amused their colleagues - and the news sur- prised Stewart, who is known as `The Gaffer`. Yorkshire started with all wickets intact, but Martin Bicknell made a breakthrough with two wickets in three balls in the day`s sec- ond over. He bowled Richard Kettleborough off-stump through the gate and had David Byas, another left-hander, lbw for a duck with what looked like a similar in- swinging delivery. Lehmann, a third left-hander, only just survived his first over before moving to a 61-ball fifty. Yorkshire`s innings hit crisis when Martyn Moxon gloved Bick- nell to short-leg, and Bradley Parker, having taken 39 minutes for his first run, was bowled by Saqlain Mushtaq in the last over before lunch. The pitch was too slow for Surrey to feel over-confident about winning, but Saqlain`s off-spin would have been a handful. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)