Ben Raine, Emilio Gay fashion narrow lead over Surrey

Surrey are still strong favourites to defeat Durham in this Rothesay County Championship match but they had to scrap for every advantage as Emilio Gay led the home team's recovery on the second day at the Banks Homes Riverside.

Rory Burns' side were still very much in the ascendant after posting 322 at lunch, thereby giving them a lead of 169, with Dan Lawrence and Jordan Clark making 80s and Ben Raine taking 5 for 72.

But Gay responded with 99 in Durham's second innings and the home side finished on 222 for 5 and they will go into the third morning with a lead of 53 and five wickets to fall. For their part, Surrey will be encouraged by the vital dismissal of Colin Ackermann, who was caught at short leg by Ryan Patel off Lawrence with only four overs left in the day's play.

In the morning session Surrey extended their first-innings lead from a paltry 29 to a formidable 169 in only 28.1 overs for the loss of their last five wickets. Lawrence was the first to go in the eighth over of the day when he clipped Codi Yusuf to the precisely placed Ackermann at midwicket and departed for a fine 88.

But the loss of a major batter did not disrupt Surrey's attacking strategy. Clark and Cameron Steel put on 70 for the seventh wicket before Steel was lbw to Raine for 27, thus becoming the first of four wickets to fall in the half hour before lunch.

Tom Lawes was bowled by Raine for eight, Sai Kishore was caught behind down the leg side off Parkinson for four and Clark was the last to go, caught at long-off by Bas de Leede for a 76-ball 82 that included eight fours and two sixes. That left Raine with his first five-wicket haul of the season but Surrey with what might yet be a match-winning advantage.

Durham's attempt to wipe out their visitors' lead and build an advantage of their own got off to a poor start when Alex Lees was lbw to Clark for 20 in the sixth over. But Ben McKinney and Gay played positively and the former Northants batsman, who took 14 runs off a Tom Lawes over, reached a 42-ball fifty with seven fours and a six. The pair had put on 73 in a little over an hour when McKinney, who had found Kishore's slow left arm difficult to play, holed out to Lawrence at long-on for 24.

However, Gay and Colin Ackermann took their side to tea, by which time Durham were 143 for 2 and the deficit had been reduced to 26. Throughout the afternoon Gay had batted with exemplary fluency and there was no doubting Surrey joy when he flicked a full-length ball from Sam Curran straight to Kishore when he was one short of his century and Durham's advantage was only four.

Ollie Robinson and Ackermann then put on 36 for the fourth wicket before Robinson fell to Kishore for the second time in two days when he tried to work the spinner through the leg side but only lofted a catch off the leading edge to Lawrence, who ran back from mid-off to accept the gift. Ackermann and Clark then seemed to be taking Durham safely to the close but Lawrence's late strike was a huge fillip to the side looking to win their fourth successive title.