Ricky Ponting bowed out of first-class cricket in grand style by making an unbeaten 169 off 319 balls to secure Surrey a draw with Nottinghamshire in their LV= County Championship clash at the Oval.

On his four-day farewell for Surrey, the former Australia captain, who is set to retire from all forms of cricket in October, lifted his first-class run tally to 24,150 runs at an average of 55.90 in 289 appearances.

By reaching three figures, Ponting went past Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Mark Waugh in the all-time list of first-class hundred makers to join Darren Lehmann on 82.

Resuming on 186-2, Surrey saw out the final day to make 395-8 declared when the two sides shook hands, with Nottinghamshire collecting 10 points and Surrey finishing with five.

Ponting worked the first ball of the day off his left hip for a single, but two deliveries later Arun Harinath was bowled around his legs by Harry Gurney for 69.

A couple of overs later, Surrey's 187-3 became 189-4 when Zander de Bruyn, attempting to scamper a single to leg, fell to a direct hit by David Hussey. Steven Davies cut Andre Adams through backward point for four, only to depart in identical fashion to Harinath.

But Ponting unfurled a succession of on drives to go to 95 before pushing a couple of singles to long-off and then lifted Samit Patel back over his head for four to register his first hundred at the Oval, which came off 183 balls and included 14 boundaries.

Zafar Ansari contributed 27 to a sixth-wicket stand of 98 in 33 overs before he was caught at slip attempting to offer no shot to Patel, who struck again when Gareth Batty was lbw without scoring.

Chris Tremlett was pinned leg before on the crease by Patel, but Jade Dernbach, who survived a difficult chance to backward point off Ajmal Shahzad when five, got his head down to keep Ponting company in an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 59 in 23 overs.

The two sides shook hands on a draw at 4.51pm, leaving Patel with bowling figures of 3-109 off 51 overs.