Judging the merits of the batting surface here is one of the trickier assignments David Hughes has faced in his role as ECB pitch inspector. Its behaviour is erratic, the variety of bounce threatening batsmen's toes, hands and ribs in equal measure, but after Graeme Hick tamed it so imperiously on Tuesday, yesterday produced more runs than any day this season, in any first-class match. True, there was a lot of awful bowling but also extraordinary batting, led by Neil Carter's exhilarating 95 off 80 balls, as Warwickshire recovered from a perilous 50 for 4 to reach 405 all out, claiming maximum batting points and an unlikely lead.So Hughes, who was called in overnight by umpires Roy Palmer and John Hampshire, faced a dilemma. Lamb has been in charge of the ECB since its inception in January 1997 but has come under increasing pressure because of the ECB's indecisive handling of the Zimbabwe issue and the recent proposals put forward for the future structure of domestic cricket. The 51-year-old former Middlesex and Northamptonshire player told David Morgan, the chairman of the ECB, of his decision on Monday but an announcement was delayed until a severance deal was agreed. If the first two days yield 854 runs, how can you condemn the pitch? Yesterday saw 481 scored, 336 in boundaries, with six overs chalked off for bad light. It left Hughes enough in two minds to take another look today before deciding whether a pitch panel should be convened "It is an interesting one," he said. "But I need to see how the game progresses and how the ball reacts." Warwickshire could be docked up to 15 points, although such a penalty is unlikely.Carter's whirlwind would almost certainly have brought him the fastest hundred of the Championship season had his attempt at a seventh six not resulted in a well-judged catch by Gareth Batty at deep backward square.

There was breathtaking stuff as well from Dougie Brown and Jim Troughton.But Worcestershire will feel they let their opponents off the hook. In a disastrous afternoon they conceded 245 in 44 overs, handing over the initiative. By the close, with Hick gone for 29 (170 short of his 1,000 runs before 1 June), Worcestershire led by 44.. Had it not been for an excellent half-century, his second in successive innings, by a watchful Alistair Brown, Surrey might have struggled to build as challenging a total.Batty, the captain, perished early on, and after passing 150 in an innings for the 20th time in his career Mark Ramprakash was bowled by Mohammad Sami.

But the real damage was done by the slow left-armer Rob Ferley, who sparked a post-lunch collapse and took three wickets for 18 runs in 23 balls.. Azhar Mahmood generated pace and movement in the air and off the pitch and made things awkward for Kent, with the exception of Key. The Pakistan all-rounder claimed four of the five wickets to fall, the wicketkeeper, Jon Batty, being the catcher on each occasion. Batty claimed his fifth catch when the nightwatchman, Martin Saggers, was snapped up down the leg side.The Kent attack had not been quite so efficient, although they did a half-decent job in containing Surrey in the morning. They trooped in still 149 runs off that initial target and 298 behind overall.Surrey bowled well. "A smouldering ember" would have been more appropriate to describe him yesterday and even that was extinguished with the last ball of the first over from Anderson, when his middle stump went flying.Anderson was sharper, straighter and more hostile than on the first day.