Fine centuries by Gautam Gambhir, Sridharan Sriram and A T Rayudu on Wednesday put India 'A' in the driver's seat on the second day of the three-day match against county side Surrey, at the AMP Oval in London.

Replying to Surrey's first innings score of 173, India 'A' declared at 462 for four in the post-tea session.

Gambhir and Rayudu remained not out on 130 and 101 respectively after Sriram made 115.

Surrey were 33 for no loss in 8.4 overs in their second innings when rain stopped play for the second time.

Resuming from their overnight score of 235 for 2, the tourists sent Surrey on a long leather hunt batting through to the last session losing just two more wickets.

Rayudu, who came in at the fall of Vijay Bharadwaj's wicket when the total was 291, and Gambhir added 171 runs for the fifth wicket to give India 'A' a 289-run first innings lead with one more day's play left.

Gambhir faced 186 balls and hit 17 fours in a patient effort that lasted nearly four hours. It was his second century on tour after his 128 not out against British Universities on June 25.

Rayudu, who was on 87 at the tea break, completed his century in the post-tea session, which was delayed due to rain. The youngster hit 15 fours and two sixes scoring 101 in just 103 balls.

Surrey, which fielded five new players against the tourists, tried as many as nine bowlers as the Indian batsmen made merry.

Scoreboard:
Surrey 1st Innings:          173

India A 1st Innings:
S S Das lbw b Todd              74
W Jaffer c Batty b Dernbach     21
S Sriram c Batty b Clarke      115
G Gambhir not out              130
V Bharadwaj c Shahid b Clarke    7
A Rayudu not out               101

Extras (b-2, lb-5, w-3, nb-4)   14
Total (4 wkts, 94.5 overs)     462

Fall of Wickets: 1-48, 2-150, 3-276, 4-291.
Bowling: Murtagh 17.5-0-81-0, Saker 15-1-76-0, Dernbach 13-3-74-1, Clarke 18-5-36-2, Benning 5-0-42-0, Todd 14-0-92-1, Shahid 9-1-42-0, Brown 2-0-7- 0, Newman 1-0-5-0.

Surrey 2nd innings:
S Newman batting              4
J Batty batting              23

Extras (lb-2, nb-2)           4
Total (no loss, 8.4 overs)   33

Bowling: Salvi 4-1-7-0, Bhandari 3-0-20-0, Balaji 1.4-0-4-0.