Brilliant maiden centuries from Adam Thomas and Ollie Sykes inspired Surrey to a 43 run win over Derbyshire Falcons in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup Group A match at the Central Co-op County Ground.
Thomas scored 162 from 149 balls and Sykes 115 off 92 with Nathan Barnwell smashing an unbeaten 43 off 21 to take Surrey to 388 for 4.
Thomas and Sykes put on 265 from 207 balls to set a Surrey List A record for the third wicket, beating the previous highest of 200 by Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe against Glamorgan at The Oval in 1989.
There was also an unwanted record for Derbyshire’s Pat Brown who conceded 114 from his 10 overs, the most costly List A figures in the UK and the second most expensive worldwide.
Matt Montgomery led a spirited Falcons chase with 114 from 110 balls and Caleb Jewell scored 77 off 55 but they came up short on 345.
It was only the second meeting between the two counties in 10 years and after Surrey chose to bat on an overcast morning, they quickly lost Rory Burns who played across the line at Zak Chappell.
Chappell was getting some movement which accounted for Nikhil Gorantla who was trapped on the crease in the 11th over by a ball that straightened.
Another wicket at that stage would have put the inexperienced visitors under pressure but Thomas and Sykes played superbly, mixing selective aggression with placement.
Thomas reached his first 50 for Surrey off 58 balls with Sykes completing his half-century, which included three sixes, off only 47.
Sykes was striking the ball cleanly, twice pulling Pat Brown for six before dispatching spinner Joe Hawkins over the ropes on his way to a 79 ball hundred.
Thomas completed his century, which came from 122 balls, and then drove Brown for four to break the third wicket record.
He raced to his third 50 off only 20 balls and fell aiming for his seventh six when he was well caught by Harry Came at deep mid-wicket.
Sykes followed in the next over, top edging a pull at Nick Potts, but Barnwell plundered 25 off the last over from Brown to take Surrey to the highest List A score against Derbyshire.
The Falcons lost Harry Came cheaply but Jewell was dismissive against anything slightly off line and raced to 50 from 29 balls.
Surrey should have removed him on 64 when he pulled Barnwell to fine leg but the ball went through Ollie Hunt’s hands and over the ropes to bring up the Falcons 100.
The introduction of spin slowed the rate and brought the big wicket of Jewell who top edged a sweep at Yousef Majid in the 18th over and was well caught by Ralphie Albert at deep backward square.
But Montgomery was finding gaps in the field, reaching 50 from 47 balls and with Guest, added 88 from 75 balls before the Falcons skipper top edged a reverse sweep at Sykes.
Sykes deflected a Montgomery drive onto the stumps to run out Martin Andersson but Amrit Basra hit the ball powerfully to score 39 from 26 balls before he was lbw sweeping Sykes.
Montgomery completed a fine hundred but with the rate climbing he top edged Ari Karvelas to end the Falcons hopes.
Surrey captain Ollie Sykes said: “For me leading this side out for the first time is a massive honour and the way we went about that win was great.
“One thing we’ve seen throughout this competition is we’ve lost too many wickets too early by trying to almost force the issue too much and today we said ideally no more than three down at 30 overs and we were only two down until the 43rd so to be able to do that was really good.
“Me and Adam (Thomas) have played a lot of cricket together so we know how each other bats and I thought the way he in particular played after he got to his milestone, the way he took it down was frightening.
“I think the way we scrapped in general was just superb, every single person got their kit dirty and put something on the line so it was just a good day.”
On breaking the record held by Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe he said: “i wasn’t aware of that but Stewi (Alec Stewart) metioned it straight away and as Rory Burns said, to knock off two old GOATS that’s pretty good so it’s pretty cool to knock off a record held by those two.”
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