Surrey take 17 wickets in day to close in on victory, and Division One title

Surrey are closing in. They took 17 Warwickshire wickets at the Kia Oval on Monday and, with Essex unlikely to reach a third batting bonus point against Middlesex, will go at least 18 points clear at the top of the Championship table when the dust settles on this round.

That will mean, depending on Essex's ongoing fixture against Middlesex and the visit of Hampshire to Chelmsford in two weeks' time (neither of the top two play next week), Surrey can hope to clinch their second successive title when they play their final home game of the summer against Northamptonshire from September 19. It would be difficult to argue that they have not earned it.

Warwickshire's side for this fixture always looked a batter light, despite the arrival of Kraigg Brathwaite for the final month of the season. They are without two first-choice top-order batters in Rob Yates (illness) and Alex Davies (back), while Jacob Bethell and Liam Norwell are also sidelined. The promotion of Ed Barnard to No. 3 was as optimistic as his first-innings leave, and his two innings brought five runs between them.

Barnard's day had started brightly: he took three wickets, including two in three balls, to finish with 5 for 66, his first Championship five-for since 2019. Surrey let their overnight 339 for 4 turn into 396 all out; they needed four runs off three balls to secure a fourth batting point when Ben Foakes dragged Danny Briggs to deep midwicket for 125.

But this is not the Oval pitch of old, where runs flowed freely all season. Only once this summer has a team reached 400 in a red-ball match: Australia's 463 all out in the first innings of the World Test Championship final, back in June. Surrey have generally played on pitches with a covering of live grass, keeping their seamers interested at all stages.

And throughout a baking-hot South London afternoon, Surrey were utterly ruthless. Their five-man seam attack might lack in variety, but makes up for it in quality: Dan Worrall took six wickets in the day, Kemar Roach five, Jordan Clark four and Tom Lawes two, with Jamie Overton wicketless in his 10 overs.

"We thought it was a good batting wicket: there's a bit there for the bowlers, but once you get yourself in, you can get a big score like Foakesy did," Roach said. "As a bowling unit, we were outstanding. We're a very skilful group and once we put the ball in the right areas, we got the results. Happy for the 17 wickets, and it makes it pretty easy for tomorrow."

Surrey are missing a swathe of players on England duty yet could afford to leave out their new overseas signing this week. Sai Sudharsan, the 21-year-old India A batter who hit 96 in the IPL final earlier this year, was left to run the drinks, with Ryan Patel preferred at No. 3. Their squad will get even stronger next season, when Dan Lawrence joins from the likely runners-up.

Worrall removed both openers before lunch, hooping one back into Will Rhodes' off stump and having Brathwaite caught in the slips fencing at a short, wide outswinger. Roach, like Brathwaite deemed surplus to requirements by all six Caribbean Premier League franchises, bowled Barnard as he shouldered arms, then struck with successive balls in his first over after lunch to have Dan Mousley chopping on and Chris Benjamin caught at slip.

Sam Hain and Michael Burgess stuck around for 12 overs, adding 40 runs and a veneer of respectability, before Hain was trapped lbw by Clark, and Burgess edged Worrall behind after a battling 54, Warwickshire's only first-innings score above 30. Briggs played on against Roach, before Lawes accounted for the tail.

Surrey enforced the follow-on after tea and Warwickshire struggled again, sliding from 19 for 0 to 20 for 4 in 15 balls. Clark bowled Brathwaite and had Hain edging behind, while Worrall did for Rhodes, edging behind, and Barnard, nailing a drive straight to cover.

Warwickshire looked set for defeat inside two days when Clark trapped Benjamin on the back pad to leave them 35 for 5, still 200 behind. It took a 75-run stand between Burgess and the counter-attacking Mousley, who ended the day unbeaten on a stylish 60, to avoid that ignominy.

But shortly before the close, Roach knocked out Burgess' off stump and Worrall had Briggs pouched at second slip to leave Surrey three wickets away, and Warwickshire facing a journey home up the M40 tomorrow with their mid-table status confirmed.