Essex v Surrey: Scores and report from County Championship Division One

Match scores: Day four (Chelmsford)

Match drawn

Surrey 1st inns: 369 all out (Sangakkara 200, S Curran 90; Porter 4-89, Quinn 3-66)
Surrey 2nd inns: 260-9d (Sangakkara 84, Burns 50; Porter 5-71)

Essex 1st inns: 383 all out (Lawrence 107, Ten Doeschate 53, Browne 52, Wagner 50; Meaker 3-73, Virdi 3-82)

Day four report

Kumar Sangakkara missed out on a piece of County Championship history as Surrey drew with Essex at Chelmsford in Division One.

The Sri Lankan fell 16 runs short of a record-equalling sixth consecutive Championship century - and his 100th hundred across all forms of the game - when he patted the ball anticlimactically back to Essex's part-time spinner Tom Westley.

Sangakkara now has 853 runs in red-ball cricket this season at an average of just over 106, with his last six innings bringing scores of 136 against Lancashire, 105 against Warwickshire, 114 and 120 against Middlesex and 200 and 84 in this game.

There had been a doubt at one stage whether Sangakkara would even get the chance to the challenge the record. He was stranded on 79 not out when the umpires took the players off for bad light and they did not return for 75 minutes.

When the captains shook hands at 4.51pm, Surrey were 246 runs ahead in their second innings with one wicket still to fall.

The draw maintained Essex's one-point advantage over Surrey at the top of the table. The two teams meet again at Guildford at the end of next week in what could be one of the season's pivotal matches.

It looked at one point as if Jamie Porter was going to set up Essex's third win of the season when he claimed five wickets in 27 balls to post career-best match figures of nine for 160.

That followed his career-best five for 24 against Hampshire last week and his best List A figures, four for 40, against Middlesex two weeks ago.

Before Porter's destructive spell, Simon Harmer had been the epitome of tight bowling - dismissing Rory Burns for 50 via a low return catch for figures of one for 11 from his first 10 overs - before Sangakkara took a liking to him.

Stand-in captain Burns and Scott Borthwick had pieced together a second-wicket partnership of 63 in 26 overs, with the former reaching his half-century from 107 balls.

But Borthwick's departure on the stroke of lunch precipitated a clatter of wickets, all to Porter.

A tickle down the leg side accounted for Borthwick and though Sangakkara survived Harmer's lbw appeal, Dom Sibley prodded at Porter's first ball after the break and provided Foster with a tumbling catch to his right.

It was 159 for five in Porter's next over when Ben Foakes chipped a tame catch to Ravi Bopara at midwicket.

Two runs later and Sam Curran was on his way, lbw to a slower ball from Porter - whose fifth wicket was not long in coming as Tom Curran was taken one-handed low to his right by Foster.

But, as he did in the first innings with 49 at number nine, Stuart Meaker built a key partnership with Sangakkara that stopped Essex's momentum in its tracks.

Porter (five for 71) was replaced by Neil Wagner, who was nowhere near as accurate and went for three successive boundaries as Sangakkara reached a 72-ball half-century.

Sangakkara hit Harmer for two scorching drives through the off-side to move effortlessly into the seventies but when Meaker ducked into a short-pitched delivery from Wagner that thudded into his jaw, the umpires decided the light was too bad to continue.

Meaker went to the ninth ball after the resumption, bowled around his legs by Harmer for 24. Two wickets were left, Sangakkara was on 80 and Essex had Westley on at the other end - but the latter ended the fairytale.

Day three report

Surrey's teenage off spinner Amar Virdi enjoyed a memorable day in his side's Specsavers County Championship match at Chelmsford before heavy rain and bad light curtailed play 26 overs early.

The 18-year-old debutant had tied-up an end for 24 overs on the first day without success or luck but showing plenty of unfulfilled promise. 

That promise was realised when he struck twice in one over either side of lunch for his maiden first-class wickets. He finished with three for 82.

His whooping, hollering and bounding run into the off-side after the first was reminiscent of some of Monty Panesar's best celebrations and it was richly deserved.

When play on the third day was brought to a premature halt at 4.55pm, Surrey had overhauled Essex's 14-run first-innings lead and were 41 ahead for the loss of Mark Stoneman's wicket.

Dan Lawrence laid the foundation for Essex's 383 with his second Championship century of the season. He was out for 107 from 208 balls, after which lively half-centuries by Ryan ten Doeschate and Neil Wagner carried on his spade work.

Lawrence and Ravi Bopara had taken Essex's fourth-wicket stand to 106 in the morning before Tom Curran got the second new ball to cut back and take out Bopara's off-stump, the batsman offering no stroke.

Lawrence accelerated through the 90s with two fours clipped through mid-on off Ravi Rampaul - the second going along the ground and right through Curran's hands - before a single took him to 99.

A controlled angled shot through gully off the same bowler brought up his century from 199 balls with 15 fours.

However, Lawrence went eight balls later in Stuart Meaker's second over of the day, moving early across his stumps and being rapped on his back pad. The kick at the ground as he turned to walk off showed his frustration.

Ten Doeschate and James Foster put on an entertaining 49-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Meaker strayed three times in an over to Ten Doeschate and three times he was thrashed through the off-side to the boundary.

Foster, too, was severe on Meaker, pulling a short ball for four and then cutting Rampaul for another.

Enter Virdi.

The England Under-19 spinner claimed his first wicket before lunch when he bowled Foster through the gate. With the final delivery of the over interrupted by the break he tossed one up to Simon Harmer who overstretched and was stumped by Ben Foakes.

Ten Doeschate reached his 50 off 75 balls when he pushed Virdi into the on-side for a single before becoming victim number three. Coming around the wicket, Virdi had the Essex captain pinned right in front for 53.

Virdi had bowled 34 overs at this point and no one had really got after him. But Wagner hit him out of the attack by thumping him straight for two one-bounce fours in an over, and followed it with two more in the next.

Wagner reached his first 50 for Essex, the seventh of his career, by fending a short-pitch ball from Rampaul past the slips to the boundary. But he departed in the same over, caught at slip by Kumar Sangakkara.

The innings ended without a run added when Matt Quinn was clean-bowled by Meaker, who finished with three for 73.

Surrey were aided by two early dropped catches in their second innings, both off Jamie Porter.

Stoneman, on four, was the first recipient of good fortune when Lawrence failed to hang on in the gully, and then Ten Doeschate flew to his right at mid-on and floored Rory Burns, who had eight.

Stoneman finally went for 28 after the pair had put on 50 in 12 overs when Alastair Cook took him low down to his left to give Wagner his first wicket of the match.

Surrey seamer Curran said of Virdi's three-wicket debut: "For a young lad to come in on Championship debut and perform the way he did was fantastic.

"He wasn't bothered by the environment at all. He got turn, he got good players out and bowled a lot of overs. He didn't go for runs, and for him he must be very proud of that. It's the start of a very exciting career.

"Coming in as a young lad there would have been nerves, but after those first couple of overs he settled in.

"Today he showed what he is about and a glimpse of what he can be. He got a couple of big wickets and most importantly he bowled a lot of dots and for a long period. That allowed our seamers to rotate from the other end.

"He is a character, a really nice guy and very well-liked by the dressing room and he is an exciting talent."

Day two report

Dan Lawrence closed in on his second Specsavers County Championship century of the season as he underpinned Essex's response to Surrey's Kumar Sangakkara-inspired 369 at Chelmsford.

Lawrence, 19, received his Essex cap at lunch on the first day and seemed intent to underline the form that earned him a call into the England Lions squad to face South Africa A in a three-match series next week.

He was the dominant partner in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 89 with Ravi Bopara that carried Essex within touching distance of the follow-on mark of 220, their first target.. At the close, Essex were 154 runs behind with seven wickets in hand and Lawrence was on 78.

Nick Browne, in contrast, had struggled to put a total on the scoreboard this season, but finally notched his first Championship half-century of the season in a dogged show of crease occupation. His 52 took 152 balls and at one point in the afternoon he scored just two runs in 50 minutes' play.

Amar Virdi, an 18-year-old off-spinner, took over the slow bowling duties in the absence of Gareth Batty and retirement of Zafar Ansari, and sent down 24 overs on debut without success but with plenty of guile and no little promise.

Essex had eventually accounted for Sangakkara in the morning, but not before he had added 23 runs to his overnight score to finish on 200. His record fifth consecutive Championship century took his season's total in Division One to 792 runs and his average to 113.14.

Alastair Cook and Browne raced to 58 for nought in 13 overs before lunch with a flurry of boundaries but the afternoon session turned into one of toil and graft as Essex added just 69 runs. To illustrate the pedestrian progress, the first fifty of the innings took 12 overs and the second a further 24.

Cook had struck six fours before the interval but lasted just seven balls after it as he shuffled too far across his stumps and was plumb lbw to Tom Curran for 36.

Browne put on 26 runs with Tom Westley for the second wicket in 15 overs before Westley wafted at one from Sam Curran to give Ben Foakes the catch behind.

Virdi had both Browne and Lawrence in knots at times, though Lawrence went aerial over long leg for the boundary that brought up the Essex hundred. Browne, too, awoke from his stupor to turn successive balls from Virdi off his hip for a combined seven runs.

He finally reached his first Championship fifty of the season from 150 balls when he clubbed Stuart Meaker through midwicket. Two balls later, though, he pulled the same bowler straight to Tom Curran and fell for 52.

Things sped up appreciably in the evening. Bopara got off the mark with successive boundaries off front and back foot, while Lawrence sent thumping cuts off Tom Curran through the covers for fours. He brought up both his half-century, from 98 balls. and the fifty partnership when he swatted Sam Curran to fine leg for his eighth boundary.

In the morning, the Surrey innings had lasted 14 more overs during which time Sangakkara took his overnight 177 to exactly 200 before holing out to Neil Wagner on the long-off boundary.

When Virdi was ninth man out - clean bowled to give Jamie Porter his fourth wicket for 89 - Sangakkara was still five runs short of his double century. He went to 199 when Wagner bowled a leg-side full-toss that was dispatched contemptuously to the boundary. Next over Ravi Rampaul eked out the single that gave Sangakkara the strike and the milestone was duly achieved with a push into the covers off Porter.

Two balls later the Sri Lanka's seven-hour marathon was over. It had encompassed 321 balls and included 27 fours.

His second century partnership of the innings was ended when Porter found the edge of Meaker's bat in the seventh over of the day. Meaker had contributed 49, from 99 balls, to the 110-run eighth-wicket stand.

Day one report

Kumar Sangakkara gave another batting masterclass as he rattled off a Surrey record fifth consecutive Specsavers County Championship century in the top-of-the-Division One match at Chelmsford.

In the process of adding 177 not out to the recent sequence of 136,105, 114 and 120, the veteran Sri Lankan went past 1,000 runs in English cricket before the end of May across the Championship and Royal London Cup. He also took his red-ball average this summer to 109.86.

Only once did Sangakkara look in the least discomforted and that in hitting the four with which he reached his fifty. He chopped the delivery from Neil Wagner over the slips where Alastair Cook got both hands to the ball, but it was no more than a valedictory wave as it raced to the boundary.

Sangakkara, who retires at the end of the season, put on 191 in 57 overs with Sam Curran to post a sixth-wicket record for Surrey against Essex. More importantly, in the context of the match, it rescued Surrey from the depths of 31 for five. Curran, who is not 19 until next Saturday, departed soon after tea for 90, but not before he had cleared the ropes on two occasions in an innings that showed great maturity.

Sangakkara had arrived in the middle with Surrey reduced to nine for two in the fourth over. By the close he had batted for 276 balls and revised his highest Championship total for Surrey.

Essex's opening bowlers were almost unplayable in the first hour. Matt Quinn picked up three wickets in 13 balls before Jamie Porter joined the party with two as Surrey lost half their side by the 11th over. And that after stand-in captain Rory Burns had decided to bat in what eventually turned out to be ideal conditions.

Quinn struck with his third ball of the day, Mark Stoneman getting the thickest of thick edges to give Simon Harmer the catch at second slip.

Burns became Quinn's 100th first-class victim when Dan Lawrence took a flying catch above his head in the gulley. Number 101 duly arrived in the next over as Scott Borthwick gave a routine edge to wicketkeeper James Foster, at which point Quinn had three for 12.

Porter was soon in on the act, his sheer pace arrowing through Dom Sibley's defences. Porter's second was not long in arriving, Ben Foakes dragging the ball on to his stumps.

Then Sangakkara, took over centre stage and changed the game completely. He showed great patience at the start and then cut loose. He welcomed back Porter for his second spell by swivelling in the crease and turning the ball firmly through midwicket. He later drove Wagner's first ball after lunch straight for four before striking Porter through the covers to bring up the fifty partnership inside 20 overs.

Sangakkara's eighth four brought up his own fifty from 84 balls, and he followed that by hammering Porter through mid-off for another boundary. When Harmer dropped one short he almost had his hand taken off as he tried to stop a lofted drive that also went for four.

The pair brought up the century stand in 32 overs, of which Curran contributed just 29. The landmark passed, Curran went into overdrive and deposited Ravi Bopara over midwicket for six amid a rampage during which Bopara's four-over spell went for 33. Curran reached his two-paced fifty from 103 balls before lifting Harmer over long leg for a second maximum.

Sangakkara's sixth century of the season in all competitions duly arrived when he drove Wagner straight past the bowler for his 13th boundary. At that stage he had batted for 174 balls.

The partnership was finally broken shortly after tea when Curran's eyes lit up as he bounced down the wicket, missed the ball from Harmer and turned to see Foster whipping off the bails. Curran departed six shy of his career-best, having hit 12 fours and two sixes from 164 balls.

The elder Curran, Tom, followed soon after, caught at cover by Nick Browne off Bopara for 86 runs less than his brother. But the hard-hitting Stuart Meaker arrived to take the shine off the new-ball and help Sangakkara put on an unbroken stand of 95.

A scampered single off Quinn took Sangakkara to a 247-ball 150 with 19 fours. The statistics just kept coming.