Surrey resumed in similar mood to that in which they had played on Day 1, with Nadeem taking the lead over Brown, however the ball after he reached his 150 he sacrificed his wicket in the pursuit of fast runs, it had been an excellent innings and partnership and gave Kirtley a deserved third wicket. This brought the newly arrived Pakistan international Azhar Mahmood to the wicket, and the nature of his instructions was clear from the first ball he faced, the dimensions of the Oval prevented him scoring a six despite trying from at least half of the balls he faced – it was an entertaining cameo appropriate to the situation that came to an end as Lewry wisely elected to aim straight and wait for him to miss with the bat.

Tudor is often not at his best when asked to pop out and smash a quick twenty or so, and this was the case again – Hutchinson taking his wicket thanks to a catch at deepish mid off to put his average for the season at less than fifty.

The good news for Surrey and the bad for Sussex was that this wicket brought Martin Bicknell to the crease – he faced fourteen balls for his 28 runs and while he only scored one six two of his fours only took one bounce to cross the rope. He remained not out when Surrey declared at the fall of Ali Brown's wicket, Brown had started the morning steadily and responsibly before building up his scoring rate, and Surrey declared when he became their fourth player of the morning to lay his wicket at the alter of quick runs his middle stump cartwheeling as he slogged across the line in a manner more in keeping with his reputation than his record.

Sussex had doubled their wicket total from the previous day in an hour and forty minutes, but at the cost of 114 more runs and now faced a total of 426 just to avoid the follow on.

Richard Montgomerie though, began Sussex's reply as though the previous three and three quarter sessions had been a batting tutorial. Edging Bicknell through the slips in the first over before hammering eighteen from Tudor in the second – it proved a brief innings though, as his thirteenth ball saw him edge Tudor to Azhar Mahmood at third slip. Murray Goodwin continued to make good progress but Adams looked uncomfortable against both opening bowlers as they took the total to 48 for one at lunch.

Afternoon Session

It was little surprise when Adams went, also to Tudor, caught in the capable hands of Alec Stewart behind the stumps – Cottey quickly followed to another third slip catch by Mahmood to leave the visitors teetering at 67 for 3.

At this point Yardy came to the crease and together with Goodwin and Surrey's slip catching sought to give the visitors a chance of saving the game. It was also lucky for Sussex that this was not Bicknell's day with the ball – he will bowl worse this season and take five wickets rather than none as edges went short wide or were put down, he, Ormond and Azhar Mahmood were all victims of drops in the slips that really should have been taken.

Ormond came on as first change bowler, replacing Bicknell from the pavilion end, but as suggested earlier he enjoyed little luck in his first spell despite gaining his first wicket for his new county when Shahid caught overseas player Murray Goodwin for thirty-six as nelson struck. Neither did Mahmood from the Vauxhall end.

The return of Tudor however brought instant results, as Robin Martin-Jenkins was beaten by pace straight away and clean bowled, the home side's last success before tea.

Sussex's batsmen had played their shots as Surrey had before and on a good pitch with a quickening outfield and Butcher setting aggressive fields gained good value from them. It was batting with an attitude that will generate chance to win games in other circumstances than these this season and deserved credit. It was also the right decision tactically – had they sought to merely block their position would have been even poorer.

Evening Session

First to go after tea was Matthew Prior, Sussex's promising 20 year old South African born wicket keeper batsman after scoring his thirty five at a run a ball and in fine style. Davies who came in next and Yardy proceeded in more circumspect manner for most of the evening session before Azhar Mahmood joined Jimmy Ormond in taking his debut wickets for Surrey and removed both in the space of three runs, removing Lewry as well shortly afterwards.

Now was time to, as it were, play for time and Kirtley and Hutchinson ended the day as they had begun in hard labouring in an uphill task, the were successful though and played out the evening despite Butcher's efforts to remove them by juggling his bowlers.

At close of play Sussex, with nine wickets down and 118 requred to save the follow on will be looking to bat all day tomorrow and much of Monday too in order to save this game. Surrey on the other hand will need to take more care with their catching if they are to take the full twenty points their batsmen and bowlers have done the bulk of the work to earn.

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