County Championship: Surrey v Northants drifts towards draw

Newton has made six centuries in 50 first-class appearances for Northants

Northants batsman Rob Newton fell five runs short of a century against Surrey in a game which looks set for a draw.

Newton (95) top scored as Northants were restricted to 309 with their last five wickets falling for 21 runs.

Tom Curran (4-89) and Zafar Ansari (3-50) accounted for much of the hosts' lower order as David Willey fell for a first-ball duck.

Surrey ended the day on 155-3 but a positive result looks unlikely after 150 overs were lost to rain.

Ansari (39) and Rory Burns (34) put on 89 for the first wicket before Ansari was caught behind by Adam Rossington off Azharullah (2-28).

Burns fell shortly after, trapped lbw by Azharullah, before Dominic Sibley edged Willey (1-38) through to Rossington.

However Kumar Sangakkara and Steven Davies, who pushed his 2015 County Championship average past 150, both remained unbeaten at stumps.

Northants batsman Rob Newton:

"If we can get our full bowling points and finish with 11 in all, this won't be a game where we wish we had played all four days.

"I think we can take 11 points against a big team like Surrey and move on."

Surrey head coach Graham Ford told BBC London 94.9:

"It wasn't easy bowling conditions - it was cold and it was tough for the spinners to bowl and I was really pleased with the way they went about it.

"Zaf (Ansari) bowled fantastically well and gave us some control and put on some pressure.

"We would have liked to have been none down at this stage but these two have got in nicely and we hope they can put in a big partnership tomorrow."