Lewis on target for rampant Surrey

Sussex 208; Surrey 209-1 Surrey win by nine wickets

A brilliant unbeaten century by Alistair Brown, and some penetrative bowling by Brendon Julian and a resurgent Chris Lewis, saw Surrey to victory by nine wickets over Sussex, whose total of 208 was hopelessly inadequate in a game played on a flat pitch and in a howling gale.

It was Brown's first hundred in the Benson and Hedges Cup, and he will not regret the timing of it. In 10 days the England selectors sit down to pick their one-day squad for the Texaco Trophy matches, and one of them - the England coach, David Lloyd - was there to see it.

If England are looking for an opening batsman who can play powerful strokes all around the wicket, then the 25-year-old Surrey batsman should fit the bill. In the end, his 117 came off just 105 balls, 74 of them in boundaries which included five sixes. The hapless off-spinner Nick Phillips, playing in place of the injured Ian Salisbury, conceded 49 from five overs.

Brown's captain, Alec Stewart, appeared to be in no less commanding form. With his feet moving more fluently than in the winter, his knock of 61 was full of stylish drives and cuts that seemed to bump soundlessly into the boundary boards, so sweetly were they timed.

It was not an easy day for bowlers, though Surrey's - particularly those lucky enough to bowl downwind (which also happened to be downhill) - made a far better fist of things.

After a last-minute fitness test, Lewis quickly plucked Martin Speight's leg-stump with an in-swinging yorker before undoing Keith Greenfield with one that bounced to take the edge of his bat. When Lewis rested, Julian tormented with his late swing to get rid of the middle order.

It was a start that Sussex never really recovered from, and they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. But for a last-wicket stand worth 46 between Paul Jarvis and Jason Lewry, after Alan Wells had scored a staunch 69, the rout would have been completed far sooner.

n Nick Speak and Neil Fairbrother shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 169 to send Lancashire into the quarter-finals as the holders beat Leicestershire by eight wickets at Grace Road.

More reports, scoreboard, page 24