Alistair Brown put himself back in the frame for England's one-day squad by scoring an unbeaten 108 as Surrey cruised into the semi-finals of the Benson & Hedges Cup after beating Sussex by 53 runs at Hove.

Two days before the party for the triangular series is announced, Brown carried his bat as Surrey made 240-7 before dismissing Sussex for 186 with 16 balls unused, the hosts losing their last eight wickets for 48 after Chris Adams and Richard Montgomerie had given them a sniff of victory.

Alec Stewart fell first ball, but Brown and Mark Ramprakash rebuilt the innings in a second wicket stand of 126 in 25 overs which ended when Ramprakash pulled Mark Robinson to deep square leg after making 53 with five fours.

Surrey rather lost their way after that with three of their batsmen, Ian Ward and the Hollioake brothers Adam and Ben, run out. Brown reached his second one-day hundred in the space of four days in the 47th over off 139 balls in a shade over three hours.

But even he was restricted in his strokeplay by a ball that had to be changed twice after going soft and which he later compared to hitting a grapefruit.

Sussex lost Murray Goodwin and Bas Zuiderent in the space of two Martin Bicknell overs, but Adams and Montgomerie hauled their side back into contention. But after putting on 100 for the third wicket in 22 overs, Adams was beaten by Alex Tudor's late inswing to spark a dismal Sussex collapse.

The Surrey seamers shared the wickets around and Sussex's last hope disappeared when Montgomerie holed out to mid off after making 83 from 124 balls with five fours. It was the first of three wickets for Ben Hollioake who bowled well at the end, although there was never much doubt that Brown would pick up the gold award.

Surrey now host Nottinghamshire in the semi-finals with Brown hoping that an England re-call may be around the corner.

"I think I've got two or three years where I can push for England selection. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't it doesn't, but I'm enjoying my cricket at the moment," said Brown.

"I think I'm playing well, I'd love another chance whether it's batting in the middle order or opening."

But he insisted that the important issue was how the team fared. " It's nice to win the Gold Award but it's not the most important thing, getting into the semi-final is important and we've got a good draw against Notts. It's nice to get a home tie.

"It wasn't an ideal start when Alec went early, but Mark Ramprakash came in and played exceptionally well and we put together a big partnership.

"The ball got incredibly soft and the pitch was slow," Brown continued. "That's the reason we didn't score as quickly as we wanted to, and they bowled quite tight, but in the end we had a quite comfortable win."

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