Surrey are on the back foot after Darren Gough took three early wickets for Yorkshire at Headingley. Day three saw Surrey give up chances allowing the Yorkshire tail to accumulate runs and go past 300. Then the Yorkshire captain ripped out the Surrey top-order to leave a hard day of work ahead for the Surrey batsmen.

Day three started on time as the sun broke through the clouds at Headingley. The Surrey bowlers were frustrated once again, but this time by the Yorkshire tail and not the rain. Darren Gough came out playing his natural game and hit two large sixes as he put on 49 with Adil Rashid for the ninth wicket. Neil Saker then removed the Yorkshire captain with a ball that left him to hit off stump. However, any idea that Surrey had of wrapping up the Yorkshire innings quickly was disregarded by Deon Kruis, who continued Gough’s lead by hitting boundaries with ease. With Rashid batting comfortably the score had moved onto 283 for 9, when it began to rain again at 12pm and the players left the field once more.

Another 2 hours of the match were lost before play was underway again, making the chances of a result looking less likely all the time. The Surrey bowlers again struggled to remove the last pairing of Rashid and Kruis as they failed to stick to their plans. That said chances were created as the former was dropped twice, allowing Yorkshire to pass 300. The first chance was put down by a diving Jonathan Batty off the bowling of Rikki Clarke whilst on 73. The second was from a top-edged hook off Matthew Nicholson that was misjudged by Saker at fine-leg. The second drop did not prove to be costly as Nicholson bowled Kruis with a yorker four balls later to close the innings on 307. The final two wickets costing 104 runs.

As the Surrey innings began the Yorkshire pace attack found early movement off the pitch. The probing line bowled by Gough enticed Scott Newman to edge a short delivery to first slip in just the second over. Gough then trapped Batty LBW whilst playing back as Surrey were left 16 for two. Mark Butcher joined Mark Ramprakash at the crease and looked strong in defence. There were memories of Butcher’s highest Test score of 173 not out against Australia at Headingley in 2001 as he beautifully drove the Aussie quick Jason Gillespie for four through the covers. Those memories did not last long, as Gough took his third wicket when Butcher edge though to the keeper for 11.

Ramprakash and Stewart Walters, who were watchful against Gough and Gillespie, rebuilt the Surrey innings. Once the new ball had lost its shine batting became easier for Surrey and Ramprakash was working his way close to 1000 first-class runs in the season. When bad light brought play to an end just after 6pm, Ramprakash was on 30 not out, just 15 short of the milestone. Surrey will begin the final day on 87 for 3 and will need to make the game safe and accumulate bonus points as the game heads for a draw.

Click here to watch the days highlights on Surrey TV

Add to Del.icio.us Digg it share on Facebook (What is this?)

• Listen
• Watch
• Get the Surrey CCC Performance Training Top, Adults, White/Silver