The visitors had made their first breakthrough of the day in the seventh over when Ben McKinney clipped Dan Worrall off his toes to Patel, who had been precisely placed at short midwicket for just such an indiscretion.
McKinney’s dismissal for seven was followed 45 minutes later by Emilio Gay’s for 14, the former Northamptonshire batsman’s forward push to a ball from Sam Curran only succeeding in nicking a catch to Ben Foakes.
Surrey domination of the game’s opening two hours was confirmed in the final two overs of the session, first when Worrall trapped Alex Lees lbw on the back foot for 34 and then when Ollie Robinson was beaten and bowled for two by a ball from Sai Kishore which turned sharply past the edge and into the off-stump.
That wicket left Durham parlously placed on 68-4 at lunch but things got much worse for the home side in the half-hour after the resumption as they lost three wickets for 16 runs in five overs.
Both Graham Clark and Ben Raine were caught at slip by Rory Burns off Worrall, Clark for four and Raine for a single, and those dismissals sandwiched the departure of Bas de Leede, who was lbw to Kishore for nought when trying to sweep.
That trio of setbacks meant Durham had lost six wickets for 40 runs and left the home side on 93-7 but some balm was applied to their supporters’ wounds by a 53-run stand for the eighth wicket between Ackermann and Matthew Potts.
Durham’s fightback was brief, though. Ackermann reached his fifty off 128 balls but was caught at mid-on by Kishore off Curran when he miscued a pull.
In the next over, Codi Yusuf was bowled by Jordan Clark for a single and the innings ended in faintly comical fashion when Potts, having made 32, attempted a scoop off Curran but merely lobbed the ball to Foakes behind the stumps. Curran returned figures of 3-22 and Kishore took 2-26.
