Ramprakash inspires recovery by Surrey

Surrey 191-5 v Warwickshire

Bob Woolmer yesterday admitted to flattery that the Warwickshire players want him to stay on as coach. Last week the former England batsman announced that he had decided not to negotiate a new contract when his present one expires at the end of this season.

The Warwickshire cricket committee meets on Monday, when the coaching position is due to be discussed. While there have been many names bandied about, if Woolmer changes his mind and decides he can spend a little more time away from his adopted home in South Africa, it may well come down to a question of whether they reappoint the former South Africa coach.

His charges tried to show willing yesterday on a ground where they have not won since 1975. They had Surrey reeling after reducing them to a very rocky, and distinctly unleader-like, 59 for 4 in the space of 23 balls.

Most of the damage was done by Dougie Brown who claimed a trio of prized scalps in just nine balls. The South African Test all-rounder Shaun Pollock started the mini-collapse when he had the opener Jonathan Batty leg before, shouldering arms.

Next over Ian Ward attempted to force Brown away off the back foot, but merely succeeded in edging the ball to Dominic Ostler for the first of his two catches at second slip; Nadeem Shahid survived the rest of that over but succumbed next time around when he was tempted into a drive and was snapped up by Ostler. Alistair Brown fell lbw two balls later.

Enter Adam Hollioake, who made up for lost time due to heavy rain by accelerating to his half century after the early tea interval with a flurry of sixes and boundaries. One ball from the first of Hollioake's two sixes was not recovered and its replacement was promptly dispatched to the same region of the ground – the Surridge enclosure – for his second six.

At the other end, Mark Ramprakash was content to pat the ball back to the bowler. He spent the best part of an hour without scoring after tea, playing out four consecutive maidens to Pollock.

When he did wake up, though, after Hollioake had departed, it was with a bit of bang, a four driven sweetly through wide mid-on. Hollioake's hour-long innings had been ended when he lost his off-stump to Melvyn Betts. Ramprakash went on to pass 50 for the seventh time this season and third time on the trot as he repaired the worst of the damage.