A great effort in the field from Surrey meant that the pressure remained on Lancashire before bad light brought the third day to a premature close.

In the bitter cold, the Surrey team worked hard to keep tabs on the Lancashire batsman and did so successfully by picking up five wickets in the two and a half sessions play.

Jimmy Ormond picked up the important wicket of Paul Horton, who had progressed his overnight score to 59. The right handed opener was beginning to look very dangerous when Ormond got one to move away and take the edge through to birthday-boy Jonathan Batty.

Only ten runs were added to the total when Chris Jordan started his 2008 season wicket tally by bowling Lancashire’s night watchman Gary Keedy. Keedy had worked hard for his 29 runs, but when he went with the score on 115, his side started to look jittery with the follow on score looking a long way off.

Things went from bad to worse for the Lightning as their powerful ball striker Mal Loye was run out with only two runs added to the score. This brought skipper Stuart Law to the crease, who installed an element of calm to the situation.

Brad Hodge batted solidly with his captain to take his side to 209. However Pedro Collins returned to the attack and immediately added to his wicket from the previous evening by having Law caught by Mark Ramprakash for 38.

The wicket meant that Andrew Flintoff joined Hodge and although he looked a little out of sorts he soon began to strike the ball nicely. A couple of fours hit powerfully in the V, demonstrated why he is so feared within the game. However the introduction of Saqlain Mushtaq proved a masterstroke from Mark Butcher. Only a couple of overs into his spell the off-spinner struck to have the danger-man caught at slip by the Surrey skipper.

Shortly after this, the umpires took the players off the field for bad light and with it deteriating further play was unfortunately called for the day. Lancashire will return to the Brit Insurance Oval tomorrow in trouble on 241 for six, but with the weather forecast not looking great the match will almost certainly end in a draw.

You can see highlights of today’s play on Surrey TV, by clicking here.

To see the scorecard from this match, click here.

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