Gough best all in vain (From York Press)

Gough best all in vain

8:20am Tuesday 24th July 2007 in Sport By David Warner

Darren Gough became Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker of the season yesterday when he grabbed 6-50 against Surrey shortly before the LV Championship match ended in another rain-wrecked draw.

The Yorkshire captain, who had taken 3-14 overnight, weighed in with three more wickets as Surrey were bowled out for 229 to leave the Tykes with a first-innings lead of 78.

Yorkshire then lost Craig White second ball but rain stopped play after only one delivery of the following over with a further 47 overs still remaining.

Gough has been in dynamic form since he returned to lead his native county at the start of the season, and he now has 29 Championship wickets at just 17.97 runs apiece, overtaking Adil Rashid with 27 victims.

But an even bigger feather in Gough's cap was the fact that his latest haul was his best-ever return in a Championship match on his home ground, his previous best figures being 6-70 against Hampshire in 1994.

He claimed 7-28 in the non-Championship Roses match at the venue in 1995 and three years later at Headingley he produced his Test best bowling of 6-42 in the win over South Africa.

Gough said: "I believe I have been bowling well all season and it was nice to be able to get in 21 overs today.

"Both teams were keen to try to get a result from the match but with poor weather forecast for the afternoon it made sense to go for the bonus points instead.

"We have now had four matches in a row badly affected by rain which is disappointing but if the lads had known at the start of the season that Yorkshire would be top of the table with ten games gone then they would have settled for that."

Yorkshire suffered a blow, however, with the side injury during the match to fast bowler Deon Kruis.

He will have a scan today and will definitely miss the battle with Kent which begins at Scarborough tomorrow.

Surrey began the final day on 87-3 and they finished with only one batting bonus point which is all they deserved for a rather negative display.

Mark Ramprakash became the first division one player to make it to 1,000 first-class runs when he had reached 45, all of them coming in the Championship.

Shortly before going to that landmark, he lost Stewart Walters, who hooked at Jason Gillespie and was magnificently caught by Tim Bresnan, while soon after Anthony McGrath provided a real spark of excitement by claiming two wickets in two balls and almost pulling off a hat-trick.

Ramprakash, having moved to 59 off 163 balls with six fours, drove too casually outside off-stump and presented Gerard Brophy with a catch, and Richard Clinton promptly nicked the next ball to the wicketkeeper.

Gough switched to the Kirkstall Lane and his second ball was a beauty which left Matt Nicholson late for Brophy to hold on to another catch.

Harbhajan Singh top-edged Gough to Gillespie at mid-off and his sixth wicket came when Rashid this time held a sprawling catch at long leg to send back Clarke for 65.

It was left to Rashid to close the innings by getting Jade Dernbach caught.

* Yorkshire have awarded a benefit next season to their England paceman, Matthew Hoggard, who made his county debut in 1996 and was capped four years later.