Karun Nair's 144* teases twist in the tail for Division One

Northamptonshire 351 for 9 (Nair 144*, Taylor 66) vs Surrey

The best overseas signings are ones with something to prove. And when one of those happens to be only the second Indian batter to score a Test triple hundred, consider yourself lucky.

In turn, Surrey, for the first time this season, are glancing over their shoulders as Essex, 18 points behind, assumed a dominant position at home to Hampshire.

This 16th first-class hundred of Nair’s career, and first for the county, came off a patient 184 deliveries and carried a clear theme of rejuvenation for player and club. The start of a possible about-turn in a meandering career may trigger an unlikely about-turn in Division One’s relegation scrap.

You have to go back to February 2022 for Nair’s last three-figure score; 175 for Karnataka against Jammu & Kashmir in the Ranji Trophy. He has since left, joining Vidarbha, and speaking to ESPNcricinfo before this penultimate round of the Championship, relayed a desire to take some form back home with him. Having opened his three-game stint at Northants with 78 against Warwickshire, this knock against the best bowling attack in the division was a serene way of rediscovering one’s mojo.

The only points of malice came with No.11 Jack White, swinging wildly and occasionally nailing over midwicket and scything over backward point for six, amid the odd scuff for four. The 17th boundary, which took him to his hundred, was a gorgeous uppercut ramp in response to Surrey trying to prolong his stay in the nineties with short stuff.

Yet even with the three batting points – Northants had managed just four in the previous 12 matches – time out of the game is more damaging to the visitors than the hosts, adrift at the bottom by 32 points before their last two matches. It will take a lot of work to convert this into a second win of the season, especially with the defending County Champions desperate not to risk too much ahead of next week’s final round of games.

Nair’s availability for the run-in came about primarily through an existing UK visa following a stint for Burbage & ER Cricket Club earlier this summer. He was on a plane a week after a former manager sounded him out about replacing Sam Whiteman, who was returning to Australia. That he has picked up where the club’s leading scorer left off has been a boost, albeit one that perhaps should not have happened to this degree.

He was on 11 when Jamie Overton shelled him at second slip on Monday, and was dropped on Tuesday – with 131 to his name – when flaying to Ryan Patel at deep midwicket. The catch was taken initially, before the elbows hit the turf, dislodging the ball. It would, and should, have been 338 all out.

Taylor, who is set to join Worcestershire on a three-year deal at the end of the season, was almost a shot a ball, chancing his arm from 193 for 7 with expansive drives and exactly the type of verve Surrey did not want. Nair relished the opportunity to coast, allowing Taylor to assume the dominant role, contributing 32 of the 50 stand, which came up in 57 deliveries. Taylor stung the fingertips of Steel at third once more with a full-blooded hack on 44, on his way to a second fifty of the season, and eighth of his career, off 55 deliveries. An inside edge past his stumps brought up the century stand from 115, with Taylor providing 59 of them.

If anything, Taylor’s demise after lunch only reinforced how wasteful Surrey had been. Overton pinned the right-hander on the pads seven balls after the lunch break, before hitting the top of Ben Sanderson’s off stump with the very next ball. Out walked Jack for the hat-trick ball, which was left precariously as it whistled full past off stump.

Nair then assumed the role of shepherd, ensuring the tailender only faced 15 of the 32 deliveries remaining in the day. The addition of 44 runs (and counting) for this final wicket was by no means crisp. Though Nair is off the back of 532 runs at a strike rate of 162.69 in the Maharaja Trophy, Karnataka’s T20 competition, he found the red Dukes ball harder to connect with, striking about one in three, much to the annoyance of the Surrey fielders. And Lawes of course, who ended up on the receiving end of both Nair’s sixes. Instead of five wickets, the 20-year-old is nursing 100 runs, with a delivery to go in his 23rd over.

The weather may yet make all this academic. But for now at least, Northants’ endeavour and Surrey’s profligacy gives both an evening wondering if the 2023 Division One season has one last twist in its tail at the top and bottom.

Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo