Surrey took a vital step towards the retention of the County Championship when they defeated Durham by five wickets at the Banks Homes Riverside.
Indian slow left-armer, Sai Kishore, took 5-72 as Rory Burns’ side dismissed Durham for 344 in their second innings and Sam Curran made 40 to help Surrey score the 176 runs they needed for their fourth victory of the season.
With the game between Nottinghamshire and Somerset at Trent Bridge seemingly heading for a draw, it appears certain the 21 points Surrey earned for their victory will ensure they extend their lead at the top of the Division One table and make them even stronger favourites to clinch their fourth successive title at some point in September.
However, the three points they earned from the game does nothing to ease next-to-bottom Durham’s relegation concerns, although their precise situation will not be clear until the results at Scarborough, Chelmsford and Worcester are known on Friday.
The third day did not go entirely according to Surrey’s morning plans.
For nearly 45 minutes, the spin bowling of Sai Kishore and Dan Lawrence gave Durham’s overnight pair, Graham Clark and Codi Yusuf, few problems and it was no surprise when Burns took the new ball as soon as it was available.
However, neither Dan Worrall nor Jordan Clark, the latter bowling to his brother, could make a breakthrough and it was left to Lawrence to take the first wicket of the day 20 minutes before lunch when Clark inside-edged a sharply turning off-spinner to Ryan Patel at short leg and departed for 42.
But Clark’s 71-run partnership with Yusuf had increased Durham’s lead to 121 and that figure had been nudged up to 136 at the first interval, when the home side were 305-6, with Yusuf unbeaten on 38.
After lunch, though, Durham lost their last four wickets for 33 runs in 10 overs and the magnitude of Surrey’s task became clear.
After batting for 149 minutes and facing 117 balls, Yusuf was caught at the wicket by Ben Foakes off Kishore for 43, seven short of what would have been only his second first-class fifty; Bas de Leede was then lbw for five when he pushed forward to a ball from Kishore that slid on with the arm; and the left-handed Ben Raine departed for 27 when he moved a yard or so across his stumps and was hit on the pads when trying to swing Curran to leg.
Kishore then completed his first five-wicket haul for Surrey in his final spell for them this year when Matthew Potts drove him to Patel at short extra-cover and Surrey were left with the task of scoring 176 to secure their fourth win of the season.
Their pursuit began in straightforward fashion. Despite being handicapped by a groin strain and needing Tom Lawes to run for him, Dom Sibley made 35 and had put on 49 with Burns before he was caught at slip by Colin Ackermann off Callum Parkinson. Patel joined his captain and the pair had put on 45 runs either side of tea before both were dismissed in the space of three balls.
Having made 28, Patel was the first to go when he attempted to pull Potts through the leg side but only skied a catch to Clark at midwicket. Two balls later, Burns was stumped by Robinson off Parkinson for 24. That left Surrey on 94-3 and Durham’s hopes were raised once more.
Not for long, however. Curran and Lawrence took their side to 135-3, just 41 runs short of their target when the umpires decided the light was too bad and briefly took the teams off the field.
When they returned, Surrey’s batsmen accelerated towards their target with a flurry of boundaries. Although Curran was caught at long-on by Ben McKinney off Parkinson when nine runs were needed and Ben Foakes was bowled for seven by Potts in the next over, Clark ended the game by hitting his first ball through the covers for two.
