Day 3, Surrey win by 10 wickets.
Durham suffered a 10 wicket defeat at the Kia Oval as Surrey are closing in on a third successive Vitality County Championship title.
Durham, who began the third day trailing by 152, never recovered after losing two wickets in the first over to Dan Worrall, who claimed his 50th and 51st scalps of the season when he removed Dan Hogg and Ben McKinney with the fourth and sixth balls of the day.
Worrall and Sam Curran, in only his second Championship appearance of the season, each took four wickets as Durham were dismissed for 177 in their second innings with Emilio Gay (48) offering prolonged resistance.
That left Surrey needing just 25 to complete their eighth win of the campaign and skipper Rory Burns and Dom Sibley knocked off the target in five overs. It was their sixth victory at the Kia Oval this season with only Somerset, who drew in April, denying them a clean sweep on home turf.
The tempo was set in the first over when Worrall made a double breakthrough. Durham’s second nightwatchman Dan Hogg lost his leg stump playing all around a ball of fullish length and Ben McKinney was beaten by a fine delivery which nipped back sharply to pin him in front.
Durham had lost three wickets in first half hour when Jordan Clark bowled Alex Lees through the gate and when he was replaced at the Vauxhall End by Curran it didn’t take long for the left-armer to make further inroads as he swung the ball late consistently, and at decent pace.
David Bedingham had taken three boundaries in an over off Clark but got only half-forward to Curran’s sixth ball and was palpably lbw while Ollie Robinson was also beaten by late inswing and lost his off stump to leave Durham’s innings in disarray at 74 for 6.
Gay, making his Durham debut ahead of his permanent move from Northamptonshire this winter, shaped up well and added 46 with Bas De Leede either side of lunch to give Durham hope.
But they had no answer to Worrall and Curran. The Australian returned at the pavilion end and nipped one back into Gay’s pads and now has 52 wickets for the season, three fewer than Essex’s Jamie Porter.
Another Curran inswinger accounted for De Leede while Tom Lawes produced a fine delivery which held its line and James Minto edged to keeper Foakes.
Curran finished things off with another booming inswinger that was way too good for No11 Chemar Holder. Curran finished with 4 for 23 while Worrall’s 4 for 34 gave him match figures of 8 for 73.
Day 2, Durham 262ao & 1/1 trail Surrey 415ao by 152 runs
Ryan Patel’s career-best 134 guided Surrey to 415 and the vital advantage of a 153-run first innings lead against Durham at the Kia Oval.
And Dan Worrall then had nightwatchman Callum Parkinson superbly held by Conor McKerr at third slip from the first ball of Durham’s second innings as, in two overs’ batting, they finished on 1 for 1.
Patel, who batted for just short of five hours in a crucial anchor role before being caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary, took the game away from Durham in an eighth wicket stand of 92 in 19 overs with Tom Lawes.
The pair began by attacking the second new ball, quickly tilting the balance of a previously hard-fought day sharply towards Surrey, the Vitality County Championship leaders and favourites for a third successive title.
And Lawes, the richly-talented 21-year-old all-rounder, struck a six and six fours in a confident 58, only his second first-class score above fifty and also a career-best.
If they had taken their catches, however, Durham might have put themselves into a strong position – especially as Patel was the main beneficiary of their largesse when he was dropped on 19 and 70.
For 26-year-old Patel, who faced 183 balls and hit three sixes and 14 fours, it was a fifth first-class hundred and his second of the season, while Tom Curran also survived two edges into the slip cordon early on in an 81-ball stay for 22 and Rory Burns was dropped on 43 soon after the start of the second day’s play.
Durham, despite their fielding lapses, performed creditably with the ball to make run-scoring hard work for Surrey until Patel and Lawes pulled away.
Surrey resumed day two on 52 without loss, in reply to Durham’s first innings 262, and Burns – after adding just three to his overnight 40 – was spilled in the slips off Daniel Hogg.
Dom Sibley helped Burns take their opening stand to an excellent 87 before, on 26, edging slippery seamer Bas de Leede low to first slip while Burns had reached 55 when he was bowled by a magnificent delivery from Barbadian paceman Chemar Holder.
A mini-collapse continued, with Surrey losing three wickets in five overs as Dan Lawrence (6) followed up one glorious cover boundary by pushing at a ball from De Leede and, like Sibley, snicking low to David Bedingham at first slip.
But, from 110 for three, Patel and Ben Foakes steadied the innings with a partnership of 47 – with Foakes needing on-field treatment after being hit on the hand by Hogg.
On 17, however, Foakes was adjudged to have feathered a catch to keeper Ollie Robinson and the impressive De Leede, who finished with four for 106, struck again when he fired in a yorker to hit Sam Curran (8) on the boot and win an lbw appeal that left Surrey 169 for five.
Tom Curran began aggressively but saw one edge off Holder burst through Bedingham’s hands at first slip and run away for four and then another fail to be taken due to Robinson initially going for the ball but then leaving it to a surprised Bedingham.
After that, Curran concentrated on supporting Patel in a partnership that eventually realised 63 before being squared up by a fine ball from left-arm spinner Parkinson that clipped his off stump.
Then came perhaps the key moment of the day when Patel, on 70, hooked a short one from De Leede straight to deep square leg where Stanley McAlindon, a substitute fielder, got in a tangle and allowed the ball to fly through his hands and over the rope for six.
Patel, who had earlier survived on 19 when James Minto failed to hold on to a skimming drive at Parkinson at short mid-wicket, then extra cover drove De Leede’s next ball for four to go to 80 and, in the next over, back-to-back boundaries by Jordan Clark off Parkinson took Surrey into the lead.
Clark made 22 before pulling Holder to deep square leg but Patel, with further legside sixes off Hogg and Minto, was then joined by Lawes in what could well be a match-defining partnership.
McKerr skied Minto to Robinson on 10 to give the 16-year-old left-arm quick a maiden first-class wicket and last man Worrall (6 not out) stayed to ensure Surrey a fourth batting bonus point and until Lawes, ironically given Durham’s previous missed catches, was quite brilliantly held by a diving Alex Lees at long off as Minto finished with two for 78.
Day 1. Durham 262ao lead Surrey 52/0 by 210
Durham battled hard to reach 262 all out at the Kia Oval but it was still Surrey who had the better of day one as they seek a third successive Vitality County Championship title.
Colin Ackermann’s unbeaten 78 was a particularly creditable effort but the 33-year-old was left stranded as Dan Worrall snatched two quick wickets with the second new ball and finish with figures of four for 39.
In 12 overs’ batting before the close, Surrey then raced to 52 without loss in late afternoon sunshine with Rory Burns completing 1,000 championship runs for the season as he tucked into some loose new ball bowling to pull a six and also hit seven fours in a 46-ball 40 not out.
Surrey, county champions in 2022 and 2023, began the penultimate round of Division One matches eight points clear of second-placed Somerset, who beat them at Taunton last week, and still in control of their own destiny.
And, when they had reduced Durham to 134 for five by mid-afternoon, after opting to bowl first, it looked as if Surrey were on course to bowl their visitors out for a modest first innings total.
Ackermann and Bas de Leede, however, then added 70 in a punchy fifth wicket stand to blunt a six-pronged Surrey pace attack, in which only Conor McKerr – not introduced until the 49th over and whose four overs cost 33 – proved ineffective.
De Leede struck six fours in his 36 from 54 balls before splicing a pull at a short ball from Tom Curran and offering a simple catch to wide mid on.
Sam Curran’s removal of Callum Parkinson for one just after tea, caught behind by Ben Foakes, left Durham uneasy again on 216 for seven.
But Ackermann, straight driving the younger Curran brother for one glorious four, continued to flourish while 19-year-old paceman Daniel Hogg, making his fourth first-class appearance, helped him to add a further 30 for the eighth wicket.
Hogg’s six ended with a pull at Tom Lawes that went straight into Tom Curran’s hands at deep square leg and 16-year-old left-arm fast bowler James Minto managed two fours off Clark on his first-class debut before Worrall swung one back between bat and pad to bowl him for eight.
Two balls later Chemar Holder was leg-before to a Worrall near-yorker, while Ackermann struck ten fours in his 125-ball knock.
Alex Lees and Ben McKinney had earlier given Durham’s innings a solid start although, when he was on 23 and the total 44, Lees was bowled shouldering arms to a Sam Curran no ball.
Both openers fell in Worrall’s second spell, the leader of Surrey’s attack having switched to the Pavilion End to better utilize a gentle cross breeze.
On 60, McKinney fell for 23 when he pushed away from his body and edged to Foakes and fellow left-hander Lees, captaining Durham in the injury absence of Scott Borthwick, was bowled for 36 by an absolute beauty from Worrall that ducked back into him late.
In between those wickets Tom Curran had Emilio Gay leg-before for a duck, ending an uncomfortable 12-ball stay on his Durham debut for a player who has joined on-loan ahead of a permanent move from Northamptonshire this winter.
David Bedingham, dropped by a diving Dom Sibley on 14 when he mis-hooked Lawes towards point – Sibley having run from second slip to try to get to the dropping ball – put on 51 with Ollie Robinson either side of lunch, but Surrey’s seamers would not let them get away despite Bedingham hitting consecutive fours off Lawes, through extra cover and wide of mid on.
Jordan Clark pinned Robinson leg-before for 17 and Lawes had his revenge on Bedingham by producing a perfect away-swinger to have him caught behind by a tumbling Foakes, before Ackermann marshalled the lower order to good effect.