Walter century helps Essex shade day one at Surrey

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

Essex 325-6: Walter 101, Elgar 92, Allison 40; Lawes 2-64

Surrey: Yet to bat

Surrey 2pts, Essex 2pts

Match scorecard

Paul Walter blunted Surrey's five-pronged pace attack for almost five hours with a patient 101 as Essex reached 325-6 after being put in on day one of their County Championship match at the Kia Oval.

Dean Elgar, the former South Africa Test opener, also batted with great skill and determination to hit 92 in a first-wicket stand of 183 with Walter which initially rocked Surrey back on their heels.

Surrey fought back with six wickets in the second half of the day – including four inside 17 overs from the 71st

But Noah Thain, with some nice shots in his 33 not out, saw it to stumps alongside Simon Harmer.

Walter's dismissal at 248-3, leg-before to Sean Abbott after facing 184 balls and hitting 14 fours, was quickly followed by the wickets of Charlie Allison for 40, Matt Critchley for eight and Michael Pepper for 17*.*

Allison was leg-before to Matt Fisher and Critchley held at the second attempt by Rory Burns at first slip off Tom Lawes.

Those three wickets were all taken with the old ball, before Gus Atkinson removed Pepper with the second new ball.

Walter, a late developer as a cricketer, did not score his maiden first-class hundred until he was 27 but now – at 31 – has matured into one of the domestic game's most consistent top-order players.

His sixth Championship century was completed just after tea, with an off-driven four as Surrey belatedly introduced Dan Lawrence's off-spin, and it should not be forgotten that when Walter signed professional terms with Essex in 2016 at the age of 22, he was viewed as a bowling all-rounder who batted in the lower order.

Surrey's best chance to break the Walter-Elgar partnership did not come until 138 runs were on the board, but Abbott spilled a caught and bowled opportunity when Walter, on 53, mishit one straight back to him.

An Oval crowd which swelled to 5,700 under cloudless blue skies saw Atkinson take the new ball in his first competitive match since last December's Boxing Day Ashes Test in Melbourne, his initial six-over spell conceding only 18 runs.