Ollie Pope’s quickfire 56 not out underlined a dramatic second day turnabout in fortunes with Surrey taking charge of their vital County Championship match against Warwickshire at The Oval.
Dom Sibley also made an unbeaten 64 as Surrey cruised to 181-1 in their second innings, helping Pope add an unbroken 89 after initially featuring in a 92-run opening partnership with Rory Burns, who scored 54 before being bowled through the gate by Ethan Bamber.
The efforts of Surrey’s top three, indeed, had wrenched a previously hard-fought contest Surrey’s way on a clearly easing pitch for batting, with Pope’s runs taking him just 78 balls while Sibley’s 160-ball knock anchored the innings perfectly.
Both Pope and Burns made their second fifties of the match and by stumps Surrey had moved ominously into an overall lead of 179 after earlier in the day bowling out Warwickshire for 248 to keep themselves in the game.
Gus Atkinson led a first session fightback with the ball with 3-53 as Warwickshire failed to capitalise fully on an overnight 132-4 in reply to Surrey’s first innings 246, although Tom Lawes’ 4-42 earned him the best figures following his stellar three-wicket burst late on day one.
New Zealand Test batsman Will Young top-scored for Warwickshire with 72, while Ed Barnard also reached a half-century and last man Nathan Gilchrist hit an unbeaten 25 to earn the visitors a slender two-run halfway lead.
Young and Barnard, who had put on 85 in defiant style towards the end of day one, added just four more runs to their overnight partnership before Atkinson had Barnard caught at the wicket for 50 with a magnificent delivery, lifting and leaving the bat from just short of a length on the line of off stump, that the Warwickshire all-rounder did well to touch.
Atkinson, bowling with pace and control, was a difficult prospect although Young did slightly top-edge a pulled six wide of long leg before pulling more confidently through mid wicket for four to reach an excellent half-century.
At 174, though, Dan Mousley’s 44-ball 19 ended with an edge to second slip off Jordan Clark and Atkinson, recalled for a second spell before lunch, responded by removing Michael Booth with his first ball back.
Booth, on 10, pushed at a sharp, rising delivery and Pope held on to his second catch of the morning at second slip before Atkinson, in his next over, also had Bamber comfortably caught at mid wicket for two by Lawrence as he flapped an attempted pull.
That left Warwickshire 204-8 and, in the fifth over after lunch, it became 216-9when Young’s superb innings was finally brought to an end by a quite brilliant catch by Surrey keeper Ben Foakes.
Diving low to his right, Foakes somehow managed to get his right glove underneath a dipping edge off Dan Worrall and it was no surprise that Young, having batted for four and a half hours and faced 166 balls, took several disbelieving backward glances at replays on the big screen as he left the field.
An assault by Gilchrist on Clark, taking four fours in an over via an outside edge, an inside edge and then two perfectly-struck drives either side of cover, took Warwickshire into the lead but – two runs short of a first batting bonus point – Lawes fired a low full toss through Olly Hannon-Dalby’s effort to flick it away to have him leg-before for seven.
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