Surrey vs Glamorgan report: Steven Davies steals limelight meant for Kevin Pietersen and Kumar Sangakkara

In the end Kevin Pietersen’s contribution, for all the words it generated, was but a footnote to Surrey’s supremacy over the first two days. Kumar Sangakkara and Steven Davies, each sitting on an unbeaten hundred overnight, extended their fourth-wicket partnership to 294.

Having confessed on the first evening to feeling privileged, almost starstruck, to be playing alongside Sangakkara, Davies eventually outscored the world’s No 1 batsman, going on to complete a maiden double century before Surrey declared midway through the second afternoon, leaving Glamorgan needing to score 414 runs merely to avoid the follow-on. They were still 290 shy of that at the close.

Davies, the 28-year-old left-hander, who might have been England’s Test wicketkeeper by now had he not decided to give up the gloves to focus on his batting, had been a footnote himself on day one, his first hundred acknowledged with little more than a passing mention after Pietersen’s flop and Sangakkara’s debut triumph, so he might have felt he deserved to have the stage to himself in the end.

He had admired the Sri Lankan’s patience and concentration, and those were his qualities too, in the way he paced his innings over the six hours and 23 minutes it occupied. Some in the crowd were urging him to “get on with it” towards the end, although his last 50 came from only nine more deliveries than the third, when he was at his briskest. In any event, Gareth Batty, Surrey’s captain, was prepared to wait for him before calling the batsmen in, so he could be forgiven for not wanting to waste the chance.

In the end, the applause from the Glamorgan crowd was generous enough. He would have been run out on 154 had Dean Cosker’s shy from extra cover hit the stumps, but otherwise it was a chanceless knock, surpassing his 192 for Worcestershire against Gloucestershire in 2006 – his second season on the circuit – as his career high.

Sangakarra had fallen on 149. Unlike Davies, he had allowed himself to be self-indulgent, lifting his bat to loop the ball over the slip cordon as Andy Carter dropped one in short, and giving the next delivery the same treatment. Four overs later, though, with the inexperienced seamer David Lloyd on for Carter, he drove straight to cover.

Carter, troubled with back injuries for the last couple of seasons, will have earned a few more aches and pains for his trouble, getting through 35 overs in total. Rewards came eventually, giving him four wickets for 110, but you suspect the Glamorgan attack may not often bowl sides out twice this season.

Surrey ought not to have similar problems, with a pool to pick from strong enough for Stuart Meaker, as fast a bowler as any county possesses, to be playing in the Second XI. But this is a docile pitch and Glamorgan had reduced the arrears by 104 by the time they lost a second wicket.

Wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose earned the appreciation of his team-mates when his 13th career century rescued Warwickshire from 95 for 5 against Hampshire at Edgbaston, but Richard Oliver’s first First Division hundred for Worcestershire came after he had been hit on the helmet by Tymal Mills, the rapid Sussex fast bowler. He needed treatment and a new helmet after failing to evade a Mills bouncer.

He had more luck after recovering from the blow, being dropped twice in the slips but it could be argued that he deserved it. Oliver was playing minor counties cricket for Shropshire 12 months ago and had been contemplating emigrating to Australia before Worcestershire offered him a trial.

Kent all-rounder Matt Coles has not enjoyed the happiest of times after his 59 first-class wickets in 2012 won him an England Lions call-up. Sent home early from their tour of Australia after breaking a curfew, he joined Hampshire on loan in 2013 and signed a three-year contract, only to be released after only one season, despite taking 41 wickets in a promotion-winning campaign.

He rejoined Kent in the winter and four wickets in his first Championship innings of the season promises better times ahead. In a low-scoring match, however, Essex need only 127 more runs to win with seven wickets in hand.

Although it is his county colleague, Adam Lyth, who was chosen by England to tour the Caribbean, few batsmen have won more favourable mentions in the last two seasons than Yorkshire’s Alex Lees, who will be the subject of a few more after his first ton of the season against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

Nonetheless, Yorkshire still have much to do to deny Notts’ bid to avenge the humiliating defeat inflicted on them at Trent Bridge last September as Yorkshire claimed the title, finishing the day still over 200 behind.

Eight of the 22 players taking part in Glamorgan’s match against Surrey are South African-born, although only one of them, Glamorgan’s opening batsman, Jacques Rudolph, is appearing as an overseas player.