STEWART Walters says his amazing form with the bat is still sinking in.

Since assuming the Surrey captaincy and making 142 against Essex two weeks ago, he has gone on to hit a fifty against Lancashire in the Pro40 League and a career best 188 against Leicestershire in the LV County Championship.

After the Foxes encounter, he said: "I'm afraid I'm going to wake up soon.

"It's been a big turnaround for me in the last month or so. In and out of the side, then to be given the captaincy and do what I did against Essex and do what I did here, it's been pretty good.

"I'm seeing the ball pretty well at the moment and these are the times when you've got to cash in as much as you can."

However, the flat pitch at the Oval may have benefited Walters but the draw against Leicerstershire - the Brown Caps' eighth stalemate in 10 matches this season - saw just nine wickets fall in four days.

Walters's 404-run partnership with Mark Ramprakash, which straddled days three and four, was the biggest stand ever conceded by Leicestershire.

Walters said: "When the opposition scores 595 for five, it doesn't take a lot for things to go wrong and before long you're under pressure. We lost a wicket in the first over, like they did, but it was just important that we took time out of the game."

The contest also saw two batsmen hit double-centuries. First up, Leicestershire's James Taylor struck an unbeaten 207, which was all the more remarkable given that the 19-year-old was still attending Shrewsbury School a year ago.

A slightly more experienced Ramprakash hit the other, his 274 taking the chance of a result away from the game in fine style.

Walters added: "Ramps is awesome to bat with, just to sit up there at the other end and watch him go about his business. If you can't learn off him, you're never going to learn off anyone. It was valuable time spent with him.

"I thought Leicestershire bowled very well. I tried to play every ball on its merit, but Ramps was a little more inventive with sweeps and stuff like that.

"I just wanted to keep it as basic as I could and spend as much time out in the middle as possible."

Late on the third day, Leicestershire's captain, Boeta Dippenaar approached Walters about the possibility of a declaration, but in the end Surrey chose to go for maximum batting points, which they achieved with an over to spare.

Walters said: "I was quite surprised. He came to me and said: 'Do you want to set-up the game?' I didn't really expect it after they had batted so long. Part of me said there was a game to win and part of me said that I didn't want to let them back into the game."