George Hill returned a superb four for 34 as Yorkshire bowled Surrey out for 204 in their first-innings reply to 486, made them follow-on at tea on day three at Headingley and left them in deep trouble second time around as Harry Brook impressed with ball rather than bat.
The hosts are chasing a second win in six Division One matches thanks in the main to Hill, whose impressive 13 overs were supplemented by three wickets for fellow England Lion Matthew Revis, two for Ben Cliff and one for Jhye Richardson.
Surrey followed-on 286 behind and closed on 83 for five from 28.4 overs.
Bad light ended play 12.2 overs early, with 20 lost in all because of the weather.
Things could have been even worse for the visitors in the first innings given they slumped to 93 for seven just before lunch, only for Australian Sean Abbott’s brisk 56 to help them more than double the total with the last three wickets.
Surrey started on 17 without loss and slipped badly, despite the loss of four overs from the day’s allotted 104 due to a brief morning rain shower.
Aussie overseas quick Richardson broke through initially to get Rory Burns caught in the point region having fended away one which rose sharply from just short of a length.
Surrey were in decent order at 58 for one before a flurry of wickets.
Dom Sibley clipped Hill to leg slip for 25 before Smith drove edged Revis to third slip.
Ryan Patel top-edged a pull at Hill to square-leg – 65 for four in the 22nd over – before Dan Lawrence drove Revis to cover.
Then came Hill’s two in two, at the end of the 26th. He angled one back into Adam Thomas, who edged behind, before a fortunate delivery bobbled onto the stumps and bowled Jordan Clark off his back hip.
Abbott was the chief instigator in settling things for Surrey, helped along by Josh Blake.
He pulled a pair of leg-side sixes off the seam of Jack White and Cliff en-route to a 53-ball fifty and shared 58 for the eighth wicket with Blake, who was later caught in the slips for 22 off Cliff – 151 for eight.
Abbott fell with the score on 176 when he edged a beauty from Revis to first slip before Cliff had Dan Worrall caught behind to wrap up the innings.
While Hill stood out, Revis also bowled superbly for his three for 45 from 11 overs. The ball he got Abbott with was particularly memorable, angled into the right-hander before nipping away.
It didn’t take long for Yorkshire to strike in Surrey’s second innings, either.
That breakthrough came in the sixth over courtesy of Jack White – the only frontline bowler who failed to strike in the first innings – when he had Burns caught behind unsure whether to play forwards or back. That left Surrey at 15 for one.
Another four overs were lost because of rain during the evening, after which Hill failed return to the field to complete his second over. That left Brook to bowl some of his medium-pacers.
And while Hill did rejoin the action not long afterwards, Brook enjoyed a memorable 18th over of the innings when Patel slapped him straight to cover and – two balls later – Smith lost his off-stump having missed one angled back in at him.
Further damage came when Revis forced Lawrence to play on for one and Brook had Adam Thomas caught at point in successive overs – 57 for five in the 22nd over.
Speaking at the end of play, Head Coach Gareth Batty said:
“It was below our standards, and we’ve got some work to do now.
“We had some poor execution at times, and we have to accept that. There were some good spells of bowling, of course, but an amount of it was our own doing.
“I don’t think it’s miracle stuff (we need to survive tomorrow), it’s just about creating a partnership and putting some sort of time pressure back on Yorkshire.
“Whenever they were just starting to question within one of our partnerships, we gave them a wicket.
“We just have to extend those periods of play and see where we get to.”
