IT is not quite true to say that last night's AXA League match at the Oval was the first floodlit cricket match to be staged in the capital. Both Highbury and Stamford Bridge have staged cricket under lights - who can forget that renowned attacking batsman Chris Tavare clipping the ball onto the terraces at the Bridge in the Lambert and Butler Cup? - but as far as competitive cricket is concerned this was a first, and a highly profitable one.
The fact that Surrey were bottom of the table and Sussex second from bottom appeared to make no difference whatsoever to an event which had been well marketed. Even on a grey, blustery evening when rain was always threatening and the lights were essential to the cricket even for the 5pm start, there was an estimated crowd of 6,500, paying either £6 in advance or £10 on the night. With full hospitality boxes on both occasions, Surrey hope for a profit of £65,000 from this match and the one against Derbyshire tomorrow evening.
The surprise, perhaps, is that it has taken English cricket so long to appreciate that even in a fickle climate the idea of playing at night, so successful overseas since Kerry Packer set the trend in 1978, was feasible here too. Where Warwickshire, Lancashire, Sussex and Surrey have trod this year, most of the others will surely follow in the National League next season.
A pity then that Surrey, so dominant in the Championship before smaller crowds, and without the help of Alec Stewart (resting for the Test), Martin Bicknell and Ben Hollioake (both nursing minor injuries with Thursday's Britannic match against Derbyshire in mind) and Graham Thorpe (recovering well from a last Friday's back operation) should have been so thoroughly outplayed by Sussex last night.
A commanding innings by Chris Adams, who edged a no ball to the boundary via his stumps to go from 50 to 54, and an infallible one by Michael Bevan were the only examples of memorable attacking batsmanship in an encounter made bloodless by the ease with which Sussex dominated in the field.
Surrey needed a big innings from Alistair Brown in a damp atmosphere suiting seam and swing bowling but he drove to mid-off in the ninth over.
Ian Ward hit a couple of good shots before slicing to deep gully and Mark Butcher achieved the extraordinary feat of narrowly missing being run out at one end by a kick onto the stumps from James Carpenter before Robin 'Ronaldo' Martin-Jenkins kicked him out with a size 13 boot at the other.
Jonathan Batty and Ian Salisbury at least gave Surrey something to defend by adding 44 in 10 overs for the eighth wicket and when Sussex were 29 for two the game was theoretically in the balance. Adams and Bevan, however, played with an authority commensurate with their salaries.