Harinath's fight gives Surrey hope of escape

Surrey 225 and 297 for 5 (Harinath 114*, Sangakkara 83, Ball 3-77) lead Nottinghamshire 446 by 76 runs
Scorecard

There was a mournful atmosphere at Trent Bridge for much of Tuesday.

While the rain that delayed the start until 2pm drifted away in fact, in spirit it appeared to remain. And, amid the gloom, with all present reeling from the sickening news of James Taylor's untimely retirement, the pavilion flag was lowered to half-mast to acknowledge Brian Hewes, the club's former scorer. A well-respected and popular man, he collapsed in the Trent Bridge Tavern on Monday and was declared dead on arrival at hospital. In such times, it becomes apparent that the result of a cricket match really doesn't amount to much.

To the credit of both teams, though - the cricket world is not large and the shock will have been felt well beyond the confines of the Nottinghamshire dressing room - they managed to produce a highly competitive day's cricket during which Arun Harinath gave his Surrey side a decent chance of claiming a draw and an outside chance of a victory.

Harinath was reckoned by Opta, the data providers, to have played and missed 35 times during the day. But such his is method of leaving the ball - playing inside the delivery in the manner of Marcus Trescothick among many others - that a realistic figure would be a fraction of that.

A more generous assessment would acknowledge that he left the ball well, made full use of the lack of third man for much of the day and put away the poor ball with some style. The greatest praise of all is that, for a while when he was batting with Kumar Sangakkara during their stand of 142 in 33 overs, it was hard to tell them apart.

Having initially come into the first-class game as something of an old-fashioned blocked, Harinath demonstrated an increased range of aggressive strokes. He punished anything on his legs with a flourish, reacted with a series of hooks and pulls when Notts tested him with the short ball and attacked the spin with sweeps and lofted drives.

Sangakkara almost ran him out on 44. Greg Smith's direct hit from cover looked to have punished Harinath for his inability to have recover his ground - certainly a picture from a local photographer suggested so - having been sent back, but the umpire disagreed and he survived to register the sixth century of an increasingly impressive career.

It might be tempting to conclude from the scorecard that Notts were distracted, they actually bowled beautifully at times. Jake Ball, in particular, seems to have come on significantly over the winter and drew warm admiration from the watching James Whitaker. Both Sangakkara and Steven Davies were undone by fine deliveries angled across them that bounced sharply and drew the edge, while Rory Burns may have been undone by a fraction of movement.

Harry Gurney also impressed. Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket and England director, recently remarked that Gurney's England days were over but he appears to have added the inswinger to his armoury over the winter and looks a much more effective performer for the improvement. Here he beat the bat regularly and will bowl less well and take a hatful of wickets. It was an admirable effort for a man who was clearly upset by the news from one of his oldest friends.

"Titch and I first played together for Loughborough Town when he was eight and I was 11," Gurney said afterwards. "We've played together pretty much the whole time. We signed for Leicestershire, came to Notts and then were in England squads together. That's a lot of time spent on a cricket field with him. It's devastating I won't do that again.

"Life is cruel. He's always been so committed to all aspects of the game, not just his batting, but his fielding and fitness. He's probably the last person this should have happened to, but supposedly his level of fitness has saved his life. We've got that silver lining I guess.

"It's devastating news. It was a rough morning with the news that came through. When we went out there we said let's try and put the emotion to one side and give our all. We knew Titch would be in hospital checking the score and probably watching the live stream. We're desperate to win the game for him and longer term try to win a trophy for him. That would be fitting."

Each time it appeared Surrey were inching towards safety, the Notts attack struck back. Jason Roy played back - and slightly across - a straight one and Ben Foakes attempted to drive over the top and managed only to give a return catch to Samit Patel. But a lead of 76, on a pitch showing signs of indifferent bounce, is not insignificant. Any result is still possible on the final day and the second new ball, due about half-an-hour into the morning, could prove crucial.