Sussex resist as Tudor excels with bat and ball

Surrey 193 and 261-8 Sussex 203

The county ground was the place for the unpredictable yesterday. For a start the Met Office got it badly wrong: a severe weather warning issued for the Brighton area proved erroneous, there was just one brief stoppage for a short sharp shower which cost three overs.

Also, confident predictions of an early Sussex demise proved well wide of the mark as the home side stole into a first-innings lead, albeit a modest one; then forecasts of a third successive second-innings century for the Surrey opener Ian Ward were thwarted when the left-hander fell 24 runs short of the mark.

It all added up to an intriguing day's play, which had culminated in a first five-wicket haul of the summer for Alex Tudor, who looked in fine form with ball and bat, performances that should please England who had earlier this week sent him home from Trent Bridge with instructions to get some bowling in between now and the third Test later this month.

The impact he made with the bat was almost as great as his bowling. Just when it looked as if Sussex were beginning to take charge of Surrey's second innings, Tudor joined Mark Ramprakash, who ended a brief lean spell with a fine halfcentury and shared in a seventh-wicket stand of 50, the England fast bowler thumping a couple of sixes in his exhilarating knock.

The chief threat to Surrey's attempts to pile up a challenging victory target was Mark Davis, a South African off-spinner with an EU passport, who claimed six wickets – his second such haul and his best for Sussex.

Ward and the patient Ramprakash proved more obdurate and discerning than some of their team-mates, and without this pair's contribution Surrey would have been in deep trouble, especially when they lost four wickets in a flurry of mid-afternoon action.

Earlier, it had been more obstinacy, in the shape of Kevin Innes, that had frustrated Surrey's best efforts to wrap things up quickly in the morning session. Innes defied all expectations (and predictions), as well as a rhythmical Tudor, for two hours and 20 minutes while he worked his way to an unbeaten 41.

Innes and the last man Billy Taylor hung around long enough to add 31 precious runs, by which time Tudor had done his bit returning an excellent 5 for 66 in 22 fluent overs.

"I felt good and attacked the crease," he said. "I want to get back into the England side and Nasser Hussain said he wants me in the team, but he and the coach Duncan Fletcher wanted me to get a few overs under my belt."

His country may need that for the next Test, but his county need more wickets from Tudor today if they are to stand a chance of salvaging victory from this match. Not that anyone is making any predictions.