Morning

At the start of day 3 Lancashire were reasonably placed but had no room for relaxation, with their last two recognised batsmen at the crease and a lead of 228 and game was nicely poised. Surrey's bowlers performed well, eliminating most of the loose deliveries that had been sent down in the first innings, and the game situation was such that neither Hegg nor Law could afford to take too many chances, all in all the pace began somewhat less frenetically than the first two days.

Azhar continued his form of the previous evening though, and it is possible that Law would have been better off taking the attack to him more positively - of course it could also have been suicide - but his controlled seam earned him Laws wicket, LBW, with the score on 154, some way short of the target Lancs would have set for that wicket.

Chapple and Hogg however did a fine job of delaying Surrey while Hegg moved the score on to 180 before each fell to Azhar's controlled movement away. This gave the Pakistan all-rounder all eight wickets so far. Jimmy Ormond though had been watching what he did from the other end and also remembering what gained him his first innings wickets, and Wood may not be in Ed Giddins class, but he is still a tailender's tailender and only delayed matters two balls.

Keedy, who's batting is such that he comes in below Wood and Hegg himself instantly realised that the end was nigh and set out to gain as many runs as possible before the inevitable came to pass. In the end it was Hegg who missed a ball from Ormond with the score on 200, just in time for Lancs to have a quick couple of overs at Surrey before lunch. Neither Ward, nor Butcher was shifted however, and the visitors must have gone into the interval with a sneaking suspicion that a target of 305 on this wicket might not be quite enough.

Afternoon/Evening

Surrey resumed their young innings in sensible mode with both Ward and Butcher refraining from the unnecessary risks that, along with Lancashire's fine bowling had blighted the home side's first innings but when things were ticking over nicely Butcher was adjudged LBW to a ball from Hogg that appeared from the pavilion to have pitched a little outside leg.

This brought Ramprakash to the middle and Surrey once again progressed in steady fashion until with the score on 78 Ward for the second time in the game departed in a manner somewhat less attractive than his innings beforehand, still his 48 & 37 far exceeded the scoring of most batsmen in this game. Thorpe looked out of touch as he compiled his twenty before hooking poorly at a bouncer from Hogg, Wood's catch was a splendid effort. Then came Ali Brown's brief innings which included a trademark hammered six and four singles from twenty four balls but came to an end when he fished lamely at a delivery outside off from day one hero Flintoff. Surrey at 139 for four were in severe danger of losing the game out of a bizarre inability to reconcile a target of 300 with the 170 odd overs available to them to achieve it.

Stewart's arrival to partner Ramprakash who had stood at the other end to the fall of wickets brought a new sense of purpose and, for want of a better word for it, sense, to proceedings. Lancashire continued to bowl with a purpose and accuracy, there was still ample swing available for the well placed delivery but for the rest of the day only Chapple, again the pick of the attack, seriously threatened the pair. The trouble was though, that the bowling was not of a sort to be able to winkle out the cautious but purposeful player and with the pitch still of even bounce and moderate pace Stewart and Ramprakash could bide their time, the asking rate was steadily dropping and the wide expanses of the Oval offered too many gaps.

From shortly before tea the light steadily began to fade and both batsmen slowly closed down shop in the forty five minutes that were possible before the umpires offered them the light. With 102 to score and a whole day to do it in neither hesitated to call it a day.

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