By Ben Horne
April 23 2002

Surrey started their bid for the county championship in style after beating Sussex by 10 wickets, in a match overshadowed by the two minutes silence at the start of day 1. This was in memory of Surrey's Ben Hollioake and Sussex's Umer Rashid. Surrey were reduced to 33 for 2 as Robert Kirtley removed both the openers cheaply. Then a stand of 143 between Mark Rampraksh (56) and Alec Stewart (99) put Surrey in the driving seat. But they were not to be the hero’s of the day as Ali Brown (177) and Nadeem Shahid (150) put on a massive 262 to give Surrey a big chance of Winning. Surrey declared on 575 with useful knocks from Azhar Mahmood (16) and Martin Bicknell (28) late in the innings.
Surrey then bowled Sussex out for 308 with Michel Yardy top scoring with 93 and Alex Tudor and Azhar Mahmod getting 3 wickets apiece.

Mark Butcher, who was standing in as Surrey captain due to Adam Hollioake grieving for Brother Ben in Australia, enforced the follow on.

Sussex made a better go of batting this time by getting 379 with Chris Adams and Tony Cottey both getting 114.

But this was not enough as it left Surrey with just 113 runs needed for victory. These were duly knocked off for no loss, Butcher making 68 and Ward 43. The runs which were knocked off in 21.2 overs, just after midday on the final day. This gave Surrey the best possible start to the season. Roll on Yorkshire!!