Rory Burns dedicated his career-best performance to Graham Thorpe on the way to reinforcing Surrey’s lead at the top of Vitality County Championship Division One.

Victory over Lancashire by an innings and 63 runs at the Kia Oval extended their advantage to 35 points with four matches remaining – starting with this week’s encounter against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge – before next Tuesday’s Vitality T20 Blast home quarter-final against Durham.

It was built around skipper Burns making 227, exhibiting all the qualities of judgement and patience of the Surrey skipper at his best and the ideal way to pay tribute to Thorpe. The match was dedicated to the former England and Surrey batter, who took his own life earlier this month.

“It’s nice in a game that is being played in Graham Thorpe’s memory to get my career-best score,” said Burns.

“Thorpey had a big influence on my career, both as a coach here and when I played for England, so it is special to do well.”

It was Surrey’s seventh win in ten Championship matches so far this season, pushing them closer towards their target of being the first team to claim a hat-trick of titles for more than half a century.

Taking advantage of winning the toss, they bowled out Lancashire for 204 on the opening day, held up longest by Matthew Hurst’s 46 and a series of dropped catches.

Burns and opening partner Dominic Sibley (39) had cleared 82 of the deficit by the close, a stand of 52 with Will Jacks (31) making further progress but the crucial stage of the innings came when the captain formed an alliance worth 197 for the fourth wicket with Ben Foakes (82).

Lancashire’s youthful attack could not find a way past them for 52 overs, Burns hitting 29 fours and a six in his 453-minute stay before becoming one of three victims for George Balderson. He declared at 444 for nine.

Only 10.1 overs were permitted by Saturday’s rain – Jordan Clark bowling opener Luke Wells (four) – but Dan Worrall made two key breakthroughs on the fourth morning. He castled captain Keaton Jennings (13) and had 16-year-old Rocky Flintoff caught behind next ball. Worrall’s three wickets took him to 40 victims for the season, the leading wicket-taker in Division One, while Clark snared three in another valuable display.

Hurst’s 64 was again the main focus of resistance but Lancashire were swept away for 177, paceman Conor McKerr making the most of a rare opportunity to take four for 27, the match sealed by a magnificent catch at short-leg from Ryan Patel off Tom Hartley (22).

Leading title rivals Somerset and Essex lost ground through draws with Warwickshire and Hampshire respectively.

Surrey’s remaining matches – Vitality County Championship Division One – August 29 to September 1: Nottinghamshire (Trent Bridge); September 9 to September 12: Somerset (Taunton); September 17 to September 20: Durham (Kia Oval); September 26 to September 29: Essex (Chelmsford). Vitality T20 Blast quarter-final – September 3: Durham (Kia Oval).

By Richard Spiller