County Championship: Hampshire fight hard to keep champions Surrey at bay

Mohammad Abbas' 6-64 was the 42nd five-wicket haul of the Pakistan bowler's first-class career

Mohammad Abbas' 6-64 and a fighting 79 not out by Nick Gubbins vied for Hampshire's top billing as their County Championship clash against Surrey moved towards an exciting finish during a riveting third day's play at the Kia Oval.

For Surrey, it was Ollie Pope with 91 and Dan Worrall's 3-30 which did most to keep their own hopes of victory alive, but Hampshire reached stumps on 198-5 - a lead of 182.

Fast bowler Worrall, Surrey's leading wicket-taker in last season's title-winning campaign, struck twice with the new ball and later returned to end Ben Brown's 61-run fifth wicket partnership with Gubbins.

Earlier Surrey's first innings of 270 was a total boosted by a late 40-ball 52 not out by Australia paceman Sean Abbott.

It gave Surrey a modest 16-run first-innings lead at the lunch interval, and Hampshire were soon struggling for survival as Worrall bowled Fletcha Middleton for 15 with a beauty that hit the top of off-stump and then saw Felix Organ (11) taken at the second attempt by Dom Sibley.

Abbott followed up by having James Vince caught at second slip by Pope for one, forcing loosely in all-too-familiar fashion, and Hampshire were suddenly 34-3.

Worrall's opening salvo earned him figures of 2-17 from six and his replacement from the Pavilion End, the 20-year-old Tom Lawes, kept up the pressure on Hampshire by striking in his second over to bowl Liam Dawson for 10.

Brown, though, Hampshire's first innings top-scorer with 95, top-edged a pull at Lawes for six over long leg and both he and Gubbins also struck fours in an over costing 15.

It seemed to tip the balance of the game back towards Hampshire as bright sunshine also bathed the ground throughout the two afternoon sessions, making batting considerably more comfortable, and there was an almost visible sense of relief in Surrey ranks when Worrall pinned Brown leg-before for 32.

But there was no further joy for Surrey's five-pronged pace attack after Ian Holland joined Gubbins - Holland upper-cutting Jordan Clark over the slips for four and Gubbins, on 48, edging Kemar Roach just short of first slip.

Surrey had begun the day 101 runs behind at 153-4, and Abbas and Kyle Abbott were soon in partnership again as batting continued to be difficult beneath overcast skies.

Pope, on 48 overnight, soon completed his gritty half-century but then Jamie Smith was bowled through the gate for 11 by an Abbott off-cutter.

Cameron Steel, though, dug in resolutely alongside Pope and even managed to whip a ball from James Fuller off his pads behind square for six - a remarkable stroke to the long boundary on the Harleyford Road side of the ground.

But when Surrey's total had reached 201, a similar stroke brought Steel's downfall on 11, with Middleton at deep mid-wicket taking the catch, and much now looked to depend on Pope if Surrey were to match Hampshire's 254.

Abbott, however, almost immediately began to take the attack back to the Hampshire seamers, as the second new ball loomed, and it was a major surprise when, nine runs short of what would have been his 11th first-class hundred at the Oval, Pope aimed to dab a ball from Abbas down to third man only to deflect it instead into his stumps.

Pope's reaction to his own error, an angry bat swish, told of his intense disappointment to have got out with the second new ball less than two overs old.

Roach hit one classy straight four off Abbas before the Pakistan international had him leg-before for five, half-forward, but any uncertainty about who was to claim the halfway honours was then quickly put to bed by Abbott's magnificent late assault.

Keith Barker's left-arm swingers were struck for four, six and four from successive balls and in the next over Abbott also lofted Abbas way over the long on ropes for a second six before the bowler ended the merriment by castling No.11 Worrall for two.

Match report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.