Surrey trail Somerset by 59 runs, with three wickets in hand, in the Second XI Championship clash at LSE New Malden, on the back of a counterattacking partnership between centurion Stuart van der Merwe and George Ealham, plus some Gus Atkinson fireworks late in the day.
Day two began with Somerset resuming the second morning on 260/5 and Surrey getting off to the start they wanted, Nathan Barnwell’s snappy bouncer proving too difficult to handle for BJ Church.
Kian Roberts, alongside his skipper Alfie Ogborne, however, didn’t let the hosts make further inroads and stuck in for a 72-run stand for the seventh wicket, which was broken when Roberts (62) drove uppishly off Luke Griffiths and was held at extra cover.
JT Langridge (7) offered valuable support to Ogborne (46), taking Somerset to 355 before Barnwell had the former caught behind, picking up his third wicket of the innings.
The final two wickets had added another 28 important runs and taken the visitors to 383 by the time Tommy Ealham had Ogborne caught down the ground and his brother George got JP Heywood (3) dismissed in the same manner.
Back out to begin their reply, Surrey were watchful at the start, with Somerset seamers Ogborne and Langridge holding their lines and testing the batters with the new ball. Left-armer Ogborne soon reaped his rewards, finding the outside edge of both openers Ollie Hunt (16) and Nikhil Gorantla (5).
With their side in a spot of bother on 29/2, van der Merwe and George Ealham stepped up and counterattacked their way through to an eye-catching 152-run partnership.
Left-hander van der Merwe was particularly expressive and aggressive, reaching his century in just 70 balls and striking 16 fours and five sixes in his impressive innings of 114, which came to an end when Ogborne had him caught at gully.
With Surrey already in a solid position on 181/3, the incoming Nathan Farmer joined up with set batter Ealham, and the duo wonderfully continued the hosts’ momentum, scoring 79 runs for the fourth wicket.
It was left-arm off-spinner MW Kaleem, who got the much-needed breakthrough for the visitors, as Ealham (78), trying to launch it over the in-field, edged one to FJ Hill at first slip, who claimed his fourth catch of the match.
Shortly after, Somerset claimed another as left-arm off-spinner beat Nathan Farmer, who batted very well for his 41, in the flight and clean bowled him, bringing Gus Atkinson to the crease.
The England international started with aplomb, shooting a four and a six, but Surrey lost their skipper, Yousef Majid (2), from the other end, Kaleem having the left-hander caught at short midwicket.
Atkinson, though, kept his foot on the pedal, launching three more sixes off the bowling left-arm spinner Thomas, while new batter Barnwell was also in no mood to play within himself.
The duo pumped up Surrey’s total by 44 runs in next to no time, but there was some respite for Somerset and Thomas late in the day as the spinner clean bowled Atkinson for an entertaining 39 off 22 balls.
After that dismissal, Barnwell and Tommy Ealham had eight deliveries to see off, which they did successfully, as Surrey closed the day on 324/7, behind Somerset by 59 runs, in what has become a finely poised game.
