SOUTHAMPTON

(Day three of four; Surrey won toss)

Surrey 278 and 151 for 7; Hampshire 227

Lunch

Chris Tremlett, the England Lions fast bowler, was unable to take the field with either bat or ball for Hampshire this morning because of a back strain.

Tremlett, who took 5 for 67 in Surrey’s first innings, did not appear at the fall of Hampshire’s ninth wicket, leaving them all out for 227 in reply to Surrey’s 278.

James Tomlinson and Dimitri Mascarenhas then took the new ball, although Hampshire initially did not seem to be missing Tremlett too much with two quick wickets. Bad light lopped off the last 36 scheduled minutes of the pre-lunch session at the Rose Bowl, but Surrey openers Scott Newman and Jon Batty were both dismissed in the six overs of their second innings that were possible before the interruption.

Newman was caught in the slips off Tomlinson and Batty was lbw to Mascarenhas as batting continued to be a difficult job in murky conditions.

Hampshire had earlier resumed on 204 for 7, losing Greg Lamb for 31 when he was bowled off an inside edge by Chris Jordan and then Tomlinson for five, clean bowled by Pedro Collins. Mark Ramprakash, the Surrey batsmen, has taken to the crease in search of his 100th first class hundred.

Tea

Surrey’s batsmen struggled throughout a grey, cold afternoon to build significantly on their 51-run first innings advantage – but kept on losing wickets at a worrying rate until Matt Nicholson and James Ormond rallied them from 75 for 7 with a stand worth 52 at tea.

Mark Ramprakash, who started this match with 99 first-class hundreds to his name, added just nine to his first innings 17 before being adjudged lbw, well-forward, to Dimitri Mascarenhas.

At 29 for three, Surrey were facing a battle to post any sort of fourth innings target for Hampshire, but at least Mark Butcher and Usman Afzaal added 36 in a counter-attacking stand before more wickets tumbled.

Butcher was lbw to a late, full length inswinger from Sean Ervine in his first over, and the former Zimbabwe all-rounder had figures of 2 for 0 from 11 balls when Alistair Brown was caught behind.

Afzaal became Ervine’s third victim, brilliantly caught low down by wicketkeeper Tom Burrows diving to his left, and James Tomlinson then angled one across Chris Jordan to have him held at second slip.

Close

Just six overs were bowled immediately after tea before the light was once more adjudged to be too bad for play.

When the players went off at 5pm, never to return, Nicholson and Ormond had pushed their potentially match-winning stand on to 76 by adding a further 24 in confident fashion.

Nicholson and Ormond will resume on tomorrow’s final day unbeaten on 40 and 35 respectively. How Hampshire, ultimately if not initially, had missed Chris Tremlett.