Bicknell recovery provides hope for beaten Surrey

Amid the gloom of their third one-day defeat in four days was one bright spot for Surrey, the welcome sight of Martin Bicknell running in to bowl again and coming safely through a rigorous work-out.

Bicknell suffered a broken right wrist in a National League match against Sussex back in June and had been expected to be out of action for at least eight weeks. But having come out of plaster last week Bicknell will have an X-ray next Monday or Tuesday, and, if given the all-clear, he is hoping to be back in Championship action a week today when Surrey travel to Leicester.

Alistair Brown did his best to conjure up more brightness for Surrey and for 79 minutes provided some thunderous entertainment as he cudgelled his way to 94 off a paltry 63 balls to follow up his hundred at this ground last year.

This time around he peppered the temptingly tight boundary with 15 fours and two sixes, the first of which entailed a change of ball after his shot landed on a table in front of a hospitality marquee, smashing a glass, scattering guests and causing quite a stir. When the ball was returned to the middle it was found to have had a slice taken out of it by the broken glass.

Brown's knock upstaged Owais Shah's cultured hundred earlier in the day and deluded the home fans into thinking that they might steal victory. It was not to be and when Brown departed, caught at backward point shaping to cut Paul Weekes, Surrey's hopes evaporated.

Before he went, Brown had had an inadvertent hand in a bizarre dismissal. If anyone had doubted how hard he hits the ball they only had to witness his drive straight back down the track in the over before he fell. The ball, travelling like a shell, knocked Nadeem Shahid's bat out of his hand as he responded to Brown's call for a single. On seeing what had happened, Brown sent him back, and Shahid tried to make his ground, but the bowler, Simon Cook, managed to get a hand to the ball and threw down the stumps before the batless Shahid could reach safety.

Surrey had missed Bicknell badly in this Second Division match. Andrew Strauss helped himself to a fine 74, while Shah blasted his way to his third hundred in this competition, and his second against Surrey. There were four sixes and eight fours in his 93-ball innings, which ended at the start of a remarkable spell of fielding by Brown, who caught Shah at long-on.

James Dalrymple was caught by the same fielder in the same Ed Giddins over and Weekes top-edged an attempted sweep off Adam Hollioake to give Brown a third catch in seven balls. By then, though, Middlesex had compiled more than enough runs.

* The Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath, who retired from Test cricket in June, has signed a one-month contract with Leicestershire.

* Warwickshire's fast bowler Melvyn Betts has received three penalty points under the England and Wales Cricket Board's disciplinary code for showing "serious dissent" during Warwickshire's Second XI Championship match against Essex last week.