Surrey smash club-record 820 against Durham

Dom Sibley's previous highest score was 244 for Warwickshire against Kent in 2019

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Kia Oval (day two)

Surrey: 820-9 dec: Sibley 305, Lawrence 178, Jacks 119, S Curran 108; Rhodes 3-131

Durham 59-1: Lees 33*; Fisher 1-13

Durham (1pt) trail Surrey (5 pts) by 761 runs with nine first-innings wickets remaining

Match scorecard

Dom Sibley's 10-hour 305, plus quickfire hundreds from both Dan Lawrence and Will Jacks, propelled Surrey to 820-9 declared at the Kia Oval, the biggest first-class total in the club's long history.

Resuming on 407-3, they broke their 126-year-old county record of 811 after batting on until just after tea on day two and prolonging Durham's suffering in scorching sunshine and sweltering temperatures above 30 degrees.

And in 28 overs' bowling before the close, Surrey then held Durham to 59-1 in reply with some testing bowling.

Matt Fisher struck at the start of his second over with the new ball to bowl Emilio Gay behind his legs for seven, and it could have been better for Surrey if they had clung on to catches offered by Alex Lees, on 11, and Will Rhodes on 12.

Lees, who reached stumps on 33, cut Tom Lawes' first ball to cover where Jordan Clark could not hold a low diving chance and Rhodes, unbeaten on 16 at the close, was put down by Sibley at second slip off Clark.

Highest ever totals in county cricket

887 - Yorkshire v Warwickshire, Edgbaston (1896)

863 - Lancashire v Surrey, The Oval (1990)

850-7 dec - Somerset v Middlesex, Taunton (2007)

820-9 dec - Surrey v Durham, The Oval (2025)

811 - Surrey v Somerset, The Oval (1899)

Sibley joins Surrey's 300 club

Sibley, on 169 overnight, eventually added 334 in 53 overs with Lawrence, a fourth wicket record for Surrey against Durham.

Lawrence cruised from 58 at the start of the day to 178 – his first-class career best – before slicing Daniel Hogg to point.

Lawrence struck four sixes and 19 fours in an eye-catching 149-ball effort, while Jacks was just as effortlessly brutal in his own 119 from 94 balls – also hitting four sixes. Sibley and Jacks put on a further 133 in 21 overs for the fifth wicket.

The declaration came when Jacks skied Hogg to deep mid-off looking to hit a third successive six, after Surrey had opted to bat on after tea for what proved to be another 12 balls and 17 runs.

But the first post-tea Jacks blow off Hogg, swung high and far over a short mid-wicket boundary, took Surrey past their previous highest total in first-class matches – the 811 scored against Somerset at the Oval in May 1899.

Sibley's 475-ball epic, featuring two sixes and 29 fours but for the main part, a relentless display of risk-free accumulation, was the eighth first-class individual score of 300 or more by a Surrey batsman, and the seventh highest.

The former England Test opener joins an illustrious list topped by Bobby Abel's 357 and also includes Kevin Pietersen, Walter Read, Sir Jack Hobbs, Tom Hayward, Andy Ducat and Mark Ramprakash.

Drissell's unwanted figures

Surrey's total, meanwhile, was also the highest first-class total made against Durham, beating the 810--4 declared reached by Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1994.

That was when Brian Lara hit his famous 501 not out, with Sibley joining Lara, Graeme Hick and Darren Lehmann as the fourth man to top 300 against Durham.

When Sibley fell, to leave Surrey 745-5 in the 152nd over, he was only 24 runs short of becoming the first batsman to complete 1,000 first-class runs this season and thoroughly deserved a standing ovation from a sizeable crowd boosted by the enthusiastic presence of more than 5,000 schoolchildren.

Clark, who contributed 24 in 16 balls, Josh Blake and Lawes all departed cheaply while Jacks continued to pile on the agony for a Durham attack missing Ben Raine, nursing an injury after bowling ten overs on day one.

George Drissell, the off-spinner, hit by Lawrence for 6, 6, 4 in successive balls at one stage, bore the brunt of Surrey's hunger for runs.

His figures of 45-1-247-1 are the most runs conceded by a bowler in the County Championship.

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