Hosts lead heading into the final day

DAY THREE | Leicestershire CCC 375 & 25 without loss v Surrey CCC 672 for 8d

SCORECARD | Available HERE

REPORT | It was a record setting day for Surrey as they set their new highest total against Leicestershire, as well as Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes setting a new fourth wicket partnership for Surrey in this fixture.

The Running Foxes entered day three knowing that they would need to break the fourth wicket partnership as swiftly as possible, as the duo of Pope and Foakes had already put on a stubborn stand of 160 runs following the wicket of Surrey captain, Rory Burns.

However, Pope did not take long to continue the form he showed on day two as he quickly brought up his century in day three, following just five overs in the day. The Surrey man’s ton came from 123 balls, including 15 fours.

The partnership grew from strength to strength, soon bringing up it’s 300th run, and then went on to break the fourth wicket partnership for Surrey, against Leicestershire, at the Oval.

The previous record of 203 between Mark Butcher (105) and Ali Brown (215) was set back in 2006 and was eclipsed by Pope’s and Foakes’ stand of 229.

The partnership came to an end on 229 as Dieter Klein produced a beauty of a delivery that sent Foakes’ off-stump flying out of the ground. Foakes departed for a fine 87 off 230 balls, as Jamie Smith joined Pope (136*) at the crease.

Smith came out and looked to settle into the crease quickly with early boundaries coming in his innings.

Pope’s wicket was proving a tough one for the Running Foxes to claim, as he soon amassed 150 runs, coming from 185 balls, including 20 fours.

County, though, did have their chances in the second session of the day to see off Smith in particular.

The first chance came as Smith drove a Griffiths delivery to Klein at cover who could not take the catch to dismiss Smith for 47.

Another chance came soon after with the slight chance of a run out possible for Leicestershire.

Pope dropped a shot out towards point where captain Ackermann was stood – there was a moment of hesitation by both batsmen making the run out possible.

Ackermann, though, only had one stump to aim at and missed, fortunately for Smith who would have been in trouble if there was a direct hit.

Consequently, the fifth wicket partnership’s 100th run was up with this somewhat risky single.

Moments later, and the Running Foxes were left rueing the missed chance of a Smith wicket as the batsman joined his teammate in recording a half-century, coming from 77 balls and including nine fours.

Another chance followed swiftly, as Smith pulled a short Mike delivery through the air towards Lewis Hill stood at deep square leg.

The Leicestershire-man had the sun to deal with as he watched the ball spear towards him, and as he went for the catch slipped on the turf.

As a result, the ball, instead of being caught, ran out for four more runs for Smith.

As the tea break was in sight, Ollie Pope took his tally to 200 with an on-drive for his 25th four. The 200 came from 236 balls including 25 fours.

The early tea break then came to coincide with the funeral of His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, with Surrey sitting on 470 for four.

As the teams emerged for the final, lengthy session of the day, Surrey took no time in turning the two-figure lead into a three-figure lead just moments after the partnership exceeded 150 runs.

The milestones kept coming for the hosts as Smith now joined his partner at the crease in earning his century, his first in Championship cricket for Surrey after hitting Ackermann over extra cover for his third six.

The century came from 131 balls and included 12 fours and three sixes.

Next in the sights of the Surrey batsmen was Ollie Pope’s 250 and his current first-class best of 251.

However, with the England international sitting on 245, he stumbled looking to play Ackermann through the covers, lifted his back leg out of the crease giving Harry Swindells enough of a chance to make the stumping.

A tough dismissal for Pope brought his classy innings to an end as Surrey were 556 for five.

Four overs later, and his partner at the crease of 241 minutes was joining him back in the pavilion after the County skipper, Colin Ackermann claimed his second wicket.

Ackermann sent Smith’s (123) middle stump flying as the batsman made room looking to try and play Ackermann through the covers, similarly to Pope, but mis-timed his swing.

Surrey were now 575 for six, but not for long as the wickets now seemed to be flowing for the Running Foxes as the seventh Surrey wicket fell soon after. It was Overton’s wicket that fell, as the bowler was run out for 16 after Griffiths and Swindells combined following some confusion between Overton and teammate Jordan Clark.

Clark carried on accelerating the strike-rate as the declaration looked more and more inevitable, after the batsman took the Running Foxes captain for double figures - including back-to-back maximums - seeing the Surrey total over the 650-run mark.

Surrey then eclipsed their highest total against Leicestershire in a first-class fixture, beating the previous record of 668 for seven set in 2006.

Ben Mike then chimed in with his first wicket of the fixture, sending Matt Dunn’s leg stump flying for 23, and with that wicket the hosts decided to declare.

Surrey’s declaration saw their innings come to an end on 672 for eight, leading the Running Foxes by 297.

The duo of Hassan Azad and Sam Evans once again made their way out to the middle to get the Running Foxes response underway, with 17 overs left in the day.

The aim of the 17 overs for the Running Foxes batsmen would be to successfully see day three out, keeping all 10 wickets intact heading into the final day.

The remaining overs of the day were successfully navigated by Azad and Evans who had remained relatively comfortable throughout, depsite a heart-in-the-mouth moment for Azad who slipped over following a delivery from Amar Virdi - the batsman just managed to slide his backfoot into his crease as some aware fielding from short leg saw the bails come off the stumps.

The drama was not over there though, as Surrey's final delivery of the day from Virdi looped up off the pad off Azad and was caught superbly by Pope at leg slip - umpire Pollard was certain in his decision to call that it came off Azad's pad rather than bat, though.

The Running Foxes ended the day on 21 without loss, with Azad 13* and Evans 5*.

FIGURES (1st inns) | Klein 24-2-122-1, Wright 21-4-87-0, Griffiths 26-2-100-2, Mike 13.4-0-79-1, Parkinson 36-2-172-1, Ackermann 21-1-90-2

FIGURES (2nd inns) | Roach 5-2-9-0, Dunn 3-1-7-0, Virdi 6-3-5-0, Overton 3-3-0-0

TEAM | Hassan Azad, Sam Evans, Harry Dearden, Colin Ackermann (C), Lewis Hill, Harry Swindells (wk), Ben Mike, Callum Parkinson, Chris Wright, Dieter Klein, Gavin Griffiths.

SURREY CCC | Rory Burns (C), Hashim Amla, Jordan Clark, Matt Dunn, Ben Foakes (wk), Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Kemar Roach, Jamie Smith, Mark Stoneman, Amar Virdi.

IMAGES | Thanks to John Mallett of Outside Off for providing the images throughout the game.