Showers over Southampton kept the players off the field until 5pm, but Surrey, who resumed on 42/4, ended a truncated day on 6-2 – having followed-on after being bundled out for 72. in response to Hampshire’s 488.
The visitors trail by 410 runs after the Hampshire bowlers ran amok with Brad Wheal striking with the last ball of the day to dismiss England opener Rory Burns for a duck after Keith Barker had dismissed Mark Stoneman – leaving nightwatchman Amar Virdi at the crease when play resumes on Wednesday.
Two scheduled restarts had earlier been scuppered due to brief, but heavy downpours that drenched the outfield.
But Hampshire more than made up for that lost time as Surrey lost 6-30 in just under an hour and were immediately sent back into bat again by stand-in skipper Kyle Abbott.
The hosts will be without captain James Vince for the rest of the match after he and Surrey all-rounder Will Jacks were sent to Cardiff for England’s makeshift ODI squad against Pakistan owing to a Covid-19 outbreak.
Vince has been replaced by 18-year-old batting prodigy Tom Prest who makes his first-class debut.
Abbott struck in the fifth over after the restart with a ball that nipped back and pinned debutant Ben Geddes, who replaced Jacks, on his crease to be lbw for four.
Hashim Amla, a double centurion when the sides met at the Kia Oval in May, then fell to a peach of a delivery from Barker, who finished with 4-21, that uprooted his leg stump with the former South Africa Test batsman top scoring with 29.
Jordan Clark and Rikki Clarke were both dismissed cheaply by Wheal with Abbott striking again to trap Jamie Overton lbw for four.
Abbott then wrapped up the innings when he diverted a Kyle Jamieson shot onto the stumps of Virdi, leaving Surrey well short of a batting point.
Victory for Hampshire, who sit third in Group Two will greatly enhance their hopes of a top-two finish ahead next week’s meeting with second-placed Gloucestershire at Cheltenham.
