Surrey Smash 126-Year-Old County Championship Record, Become 1st Team To...

Dom Sibley smashed a career-best 305 as Surrey piled on 820-9 against Durham in a County Championship Division One fixture at The Oval on Monday. Resuming on 407 for three on Day 2, Surrey broke their 126-year-old county record for most runs scored in an innings. Sibley, on 169 overnight, eventually added 334 after batting 53 overs, while Dan Lawrence (178), Will Jacks (119) and Sam Curran (108) all scored centuries in what were a couple of days for the Durham bowlers.

Surrey's previous best tally in an innings was 811, which was set all the way back in 1899, 126 years ago, against Somerset at the same ground. They are the first county side to score 800 or more runs in an innings twice in tournament's rich history.

Highest team totals in a single innings in County Championship: 

887 - YOR vs WAR, Birmingham 1896
863 - LAN vs SUR, The Oval 1990
850/7 - SOM vs MID, Taunton 2007
820/9 - SUR vs DUR, The Oval 2025
811 - SUR vs SOM, The Oval 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 opener joins an illustrious list topped by Bobby Abel and also including Kevin Pietersen, Walter Read, Sir Jack Hobbs, Tom Hayward, Andy Ducat and Mark Ramprakash. Two more Surrey players, John Edrich and Andy Sandham, scored triple-hundreds for England.

Surrey's total, meanwhile, was also the highest first-class total made against Durham, beating the 810 for four 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 for five 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 on Surrey's annual Schools Day.

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 45 overs cost 247, the most runs conceded by a bowler in the County Championship, and he finished with just one wicket to show for his labours.

(With Third Party Inputs)