Surrey seal County Championship title with emphatic victory over Yorkshire

Surrey have been crowned County Championship champions for the 21st time in their history.

The Oval outfit clinched the title in style as they took less than three days to beat Yorkshire on home turf.

And Hampshire’s 77-run defeat against Kent ensured that the season did not go to a final-day decider.

Surrey’s Ollie Pope scored 30 off 16 balls as Surrey made the 55 runs they needed to clinch their eighth red-ball victory of the season. Head coach Gareth Batty has seen his team go unbeaten in their County Championship campaign, drawing their other five matches.

Pope told BBC Radio 5 sports extra: “This is as special as it gets. The County Championship season is a seriously long season and you put in a lot of hard work.

“It starts in April and the number of days of cricket you play all leads into days like this. To get over the line is very special.

“[After finishing with England] the coaches asked if I fancied playing and left it down to me, but for me there was no question about it. We had to do what we had to do to win the trophy so I made myself available and wanted to put in a contribution to us winning this game.

“It was very special [to score 136]. It was a nice way to finish but I would have happily taken two ducks if it meant we won this game.”