Former Yorkshire all-rounder Gareth Batty has pushed his native county to the brink of relegation to Division Two of the Norwich Union League.

He coolly hit a career-best 83 not out for Surrey Lions under The Oval floodlights last night.

Now Phoenix must beat Gloucestershire Gladiators in their final game at Scarborough next Monday to stand any chance at all of avoiding the drop.

Yorkshire knocked up 214 for eight after winning the toss - but a heavy shower during the interval left Surrey with a revised target of 186 off 34 overs and Batty made sure they cruised it by seven wickets with four balls to spare.

It was Batty's first half-century in any form of county cricket and he shocked Yorkshire with an early assault on Chris Elstub after Surrey had lost their first wicket with only 13 scored.

Batty thrashed him for four boundaries in one over off which he took 19 runs to ensure that Surrey were ahead on the Duckworth-Lewis system if more rain fell.

He continued to bat positively, dashing to his 50 off 38 balls with nine fours during a 121 stand with Mark Butcher for the second wicket which came at a run-a-ball.

But Batty also enjoyed a couple of slices of luck in the 60s when the hapless Elstub dropped him on the mid-wicket boundary off Darren Lehmann and then in the following over from Richard Dawson he survived a real sitter to Matthew Hoggard at long on.

Butcher went to his 50 off 77 balls with three fours but then got a leading edge against Dawson as he aimed to leg and the bowler took a simple return catch.

Darren Gough, in his first Norwich Union match of the season, bowled Alistair Brown leg stump with 19 wanted off fours overs but Batty remained in charge and he needed only 78 balls for his unbeaten 83 which contained ten fours.

Bingley-born Batty, brother of former Yorkshire off-spinner Jeremy and son of David, who is on the county's coaching staff, played one first class game for Yorkshire before leaving at the end of the 1997 season.

"It was good fun out there and I went for my shots and they came off," said Batty. "It got a bit hostile at times and I had a bit of luck on the odd occasion but it is always nice to beat Yorkshire and I thought we played well as a team."

Matthew Wood and Michael Vaughan assured Yorkshire a good start by adding a brisk 40 inside ten overs before Ed Giddins gained revenge on Vaughan for three fours in one over by getting him caught behind.

Wood followed in similar fashion to make it 58 for two but Lehmann held firm for 21 overs while making 47, only to miss out on his half-century by driving back a return catch to Saqlain Mushtaq after facing 59 balls and striking three fours and a five which was the result of four overthrows.

Saqlain, well supported for a while by Gareth Batty, slowed down Phoenix's progress and at 176 for seven in the 41st over they had lost their momentum.

But Blakey and Gough, got them back on track with some robust

hitting which produced a stand of 38 in 23 balls for the eighth wicket, Gough blasting an enormous straight six off Batty in the penultimate over that brought 18 runs.

Blakey scored consecutive boundaries off the first two balls of the final over from Ben Hollioake before being caught at cover by Tim Murtagh for 28 from 26 deliveries, leaving Gough unbeaten on 16 from 11 balls.

Updated: 08:54 Tuesday, September 04, 2001