County Championship: Leaders Surrey beat Warwickshire by an innings

Surrey paceman Dan Worrall took two of the three Warwickshire wickets to fall on Tuesday - to end up with eight in the match

Leaders Surrey took just 15 minutes to finish off Warwickshire and claim their eighth County Championship win of the season.

The Bears, bowled out in the first innings inside 45 overs for 161, lasted even less time in the second innings as they reached only 138 from a position of 126-7 overnight.

That completed defeat by an innings and 97 runs.

Surrey have only two games left, at home to Northamptonshire and away to Hampshire - but Essex are now the only team who can prevent the reigning champions from retaining their title.

"Essex are a very good side," said Surrey skipper Rory Burns. "We expect them to do well over the next few days. It could be a tight race to the finish between them and us but we simply have to concentrate on what we do and the desire is certainly there in our dressing room. "

Warwickshire have now lost on their last four Championship trips to The Oval, two of them by an innings - and this one took just 24 balls for Surrey to wrap up.

From the fifth ball of the day, Dan Worrall got one to lift and Henry Brookes was caught off the shoulder of the bat by Jamie Overton in the slips.

Then in his next over, Worrall struck again for his fifth wicket of the innings when he produced a beautiful delivery to have Dan Mousley caught behind - wicketkeeper Ben Foakes' 300th dismissal for Surrey.

Mousley had added just one run to his overnight score to depart for 61, his fifth first-class half-century of a summer that has shown promise.

But, in the next over, the Bears' fate in this match was sealed when Chris Rushworth was bowled by Jordan Clark.

Surrey's Jordan Clark took the final wicket to finish off Warwickshire

Following on from their miserable One-Day Cup semi-final defeat by Hampshire, when they were shot out for just 93, the Bears have now suffered three straight batting collapses.

They were without three members of their top order, openers Rob Yates and Alex Davies as well as Jacob Bethell, while Liam Norwell, the man whose final-day heroics last season kept them up, is still to bowl a ball this season.

They have three Championship games left this season, a return to London to face relegation battlers Middlesex at Lord's sandwiched between home games against bottom side Northants and Somerset.

But they are 49 points clear of second-bottom Kent, they had West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite making his debut in this game, and they should in reality be safe from any genuine relegation fears themselves.

Surrey captain Rory Burns told BBC Radio London:

"That was a great performance from us pretty much from start to finish. Monday in particular, the wickets just kept on coming for us.

"We were expecting the pitch to get even better for batting as the game went on, over the four days, and having had to bat first after losing the toss. I certainly didn't expect what happened.

"But it's pretty easy for me as captain when I've got a bowling attack as good as ours. It was good to have Kemar Roach back and Dan Worrall was exceptional. He's a real leader out there but Jordan Clark also put in a really good performance.

"There is a lot of excitement in this group about what is to come in the next few weeks. It's been great to get back as a squad because in the past month or so we've been here, there and everywhere. We were buzzing to be back together again in the dressing room."

Warwickshire first team coach Mark Robinson told BBC Radio WM:

"We were out-bowled and out-batted on a really good cricket wicket on which 250 to 300 was probably about par.

"They got virtually 400 and then we just kept getting out. Monday was a day we didn't want. This morning was just an inevitability, after what happened yesterday.

"Dan Worrall was outstanding throughout the match and Jordan Clark too bowled extremely well but we came into this match a little bit light due to injuries and unavailability.

"Kraigg Brathwaite only arrived the day before this game, Ed Barnard had never batted at number three before and Chris Benjamin has not had that much cricket in this format recently, but none of that is an excuse because we should be better than we have been. We still should have had more quality as a team than we showed here."