Surrey 285 for 3 (Thomas 82*, Sibley 65, Blake 59, Patel 58) beat Lancashire 280 for 5 (Jones 67*, Jennings 64, Harris 60) by seven wickets

Surrey got their Metro Bank One-Day Cup campaign off to a magnificent start when they beat a relatively experienced Lancashire side by seven wickets in the incomparable, fell-ringed surroundings of Sedbergh School.

Having restricted Lancashire to 280 for 5 on a good wicket in a match played on a quick-scoring ground, Surrey mounted a determined pursuit of their target.

Dom Sibley and Ryan Patel both made fifties but the game was decided by Adam Thomas and Josh Blake's unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 126 in less than 13 overs. Thomas made 82 not out and Blake, who ended the match with a six off Balderson, finished undefeated on 59 as Surrey won with 14 balls to spare.

Surrey's disciplined attack contained Lancashire's batsmen in the first half of their innings and the home side were a modest 98 for two the midpoint of their 50-over innings.

By that time, they had lost Matty Hurst, bowled for two by the South African seamer Tiaan van Vuuren, and Josh Bohannon, brilliantly caught by Sibley running back and diving at deep midwicket off Yousef Majid for 40.

Bohannon put on 79 for the second wicket with Jennings but his departure foreshadowed an acceleration in the scoring rate. Marcus Harris joined the Lancashire skipper and they put on 78 in 13 overs before Jennings was caught and bowled off the leading edge by Patel for a 93-ball 64.

Having transformed the tempo of the innings, Harris was dismissed for 60 off 59 balls with seven fours and one six when he edged an attempted drive off Benji Floros to Blake. Lancashire's other batsmen took their cue from the Australian, no one more so than Michael Jones, who put on an unbroken 57 off 30 balls with Arav Shetty and finished on 67 off 45 balls. The most impressive Surrey bowler was van Vuuren, who had taken one for 18 from six overs when he left the field with an injury.

The visitors began their reply impressively. The fifty came up in 12th over and the spinners put no brake on the rate. Sibley reached his fifty off 69 balls and Patel off nine balls fewer. But having reached the midpoint of their innings on 123 for one, Surrey lost a wicket to the next delivery when Patel was caught behind off George Balderson for 58.

Six overs later, Sibley was bowled for 65 when he tried to sweep Harry Singh in the off-spinner's first over. Surrey skipper Rory Burns was then leg-before to Shetty for five but Thomas and Blake built their superb match-deciding partnership, which reached a climax when they took 45 runs off three overs bowled by Ollie Sutton, Charlie Barnard and Balderson. Curiously, no bowler in the match took more than one wicket.