Ollie Pope’s gritty 91, under testing conditions, and Dan Worrall’s 3 for 30 lead the way for Surrey, but Hampshire reached stumps on 198 for 5 as this LV= Insurance County Championship between Surrey and Hampshire moved towards an exciting finish during a riveting third day’s play at the Kia Oval.
Mohammad Abbas’ excellent 6 for 64 and a fighting 79 not out from 181 balls by Nick Gubbins vied for Hampshire’s top billing. In the final session of the day, Gubbins added a crucial, unbeaten 79 with Ian Holland, who stayed not out on a stubborn 76-ball 25 when bad light ruled out the last ten scheduled overs.
Fast bowler Worrall, Surrey’s leading wicket-taker in last season’s title-winning campaign, struck twice with the new ball and later returned to end Ben Brown’s 61-run fifth wicket partnership with Gubbins.
Earlier Surrey’s first innings of 270 was a total boosted by a late 40-ball 52 not out by Australian paceman Sean Abbott, who showed he can also wield a bat by blasting two sixes and seven fours in a timely effort.
It gave Surrey a modest 16-run first innings lead at the lunch interval, and Hampshire were soon struggling for survival as Worrall bowled Fletcha Middleton for 15 with a beauty that hit the top of off stump and then saw Felix Organ (11) taken at the second attempt by Dom Sibley at first slip in his fourth and fifth overs.
Abbott followed up by having James Vince caught at second slip by Pope for 1 in the next over, forcing loosely in all-too-familiar fashion, and Hampshire were suddenly 34 for 3.
Worrall’s opening salvo earned him figures of 6-2-17-2 and his replacement from the Pavilion End, the 20-year-old Tom Lawes, kept up the pressure on Hampshire by striking in his second over to bowl Liam Dawson for 10 with a perfect outswinger.
Brown, though, Hampshire’s first innings top-scorer with 95, top-edged a pull at Lawes for six over long leg and both he and Gubbins also struck fours, square cut and on-driven, in an over costing 15.
It seemed to tip the balance of the game back towards Hampshire as bright sunshine also bathed the ground throughout the two afternoon sessions, making batting considerably more comfortable, and there was an almost visible sense of relief in Surrey ranks when Worrall pinned Brown leg-before for 32.
But Surrey’s five-pronged pace attack couldn’t make any more breakthroughs once Holland joined Gubbins – Holland upper-cutting Jordan Clark over the slips for four and Gubbins, on 48, edging Kemar Roach just short of first slip. Yet Gubbins, with nine fours overall, was otherwise in control in an excellent knock.
Surrey had begun the day 101 runs behind at 153 for 4, and Abbas and Kyle Abbott were soon in partnership again as batting continued to be difficult beneath overcast skies.
Pope, on 48 overnight, soon completed his gritty half-century but then Jamie Smith was bowled through the gate for 11 by an Abbott off-cutter and for some time it seemed as if Hampshire’s pace attack were capable of earning their team a healthy first-innings lead.
Cameron Steel, though, dug in resolutely alongside Pope and even managed to whip a ball from James Fuller off his pads behind square for six – a remarkable stroke to the long boundary on the Harleyford Road side of the ground.
But when Surrey’s total had reached 201 a similar stroke brought Steel’s downfall on 11, with Middleton at deep mid-wicket taking the catch, and much now looked to depend on Pope if Surrey were to match Hampshire’s 254.
Sean Abbott, however, almost immediately began to take the attack back to the Hampshire seamers, as the second new ball loomed, and it was a major surprise when, nine runs short of what would have been his 11th first-class hundred at the Oval, Pope aimed to dab a ball from Abbas down to third man only to deflect it instead into his stumps.
Disappointed that he got out with the second new ball less than two overs old and with Surrey still short of a halfway lead, his innings, though, was still a major contribution in the context of such a hard-fought contest and, in the testing conditions in which he had batted, one of his finest for his county.
Roach hit one classy straight four off Abbas before the Pakistan international had him leg-before for 5, half-forward, but any uncertainty about who was to claim the halfway honours was then quickly put to bed by Abbott’s magnificent late assault.
Keith Barker’s left-arm swingers were struck for 4, 6, 4 from successive balls – a murderous blow though long on’s hands, a clean hit high over wide mid wicket and then a thumping swat past mid off – and in the next over Abbott also lofted Abbas way over the long on ropes for a second six before the bowler ended the merriment by castling No 11 Worrall for 2.
