Surrey fell to a seven-wicket defeat against Durham in their opening Second XI Championship fixture of the season.
Resuming on 277/4 and trailing by 51 runs at that point, the visitors built on their innings from the second day, as Colin Ackermann reached 142 before his impressive knock was ended by Nathan Barnwell to leave Durham 361/5 in the 99th over, while H Mustard batted well for his 116-ball 72, which included nine fours and a six.
Their 131-run partnership for the fifth wicket did the bulk of the legwork to take Durham into the lead. However, once that stand was broken, Surrey bowlers earned their rewards and ensured that the visitors were restricted to a 54-run lead, bowling them out for 382.
After Barnwell’s first breakthrough of the day, left-arm spinner Yousef Majid (4/64) bowled an excellent spell, picking up four wickets of Durham’s six to fall on day three, while Seb Stuart-Reckling (2/67) collected the remaining one.
The visitors came back into the field to deliver an inspired new ball spell as C Harmison had Josh Blake and Nathan Farmer caught in the slips in back-to-back deliveries after Z Mawdsley got the wicket of first innings centurion Ollie Hunt.
At 3/13, Nikhil Gorantla and Will Tripcony joined up in the middle, with the former looking good for his cameo of 20 runs but edged one that lifted high on him off Daniel Hogg’s bowling.
Majid (19) and Tripcony (41), who struck some fine shots, attempted to steady Surrey’s second innings through their 52-run partnership for the sixth wicket, before the leg spin of S Ghafari (5/41) did the damage, starting by clean bowling Majid.
Tommy Ealham became Ghafari’s next victim, followed by Tripcony, Seb Stuart-Reckling and Alex Chambers. Nathan Barnwell hit a quick-fire 24 but became the final wicket to fall, as Surrey set a target of 87 runs for their visitors.
Barnwell dismissed the opposition skipper George Drissell with a fierce bouncer, Ealham bowled O Harwood (20) with a looping delivery that drifted away, and Jack Martin had Mustard (32) lbw, but Colin Ackermann (19*) and L Symington (9*) saw Durham to the finish line.
