The combination of a superb double century from Ravi Bopara and the frustration of seeing Essex's lower order add a further 133 in 34 overs after Bopara's departure for 201, means that Surrey will have to bat well to salvage a draw from this match, especially after the Brown Caps followed up their tame display with the ball on day three by losing a couple of wickets to Danish Kaneria just before the close.

The home side resumed on 221-3 and Bopara needed just 59 balls to convert his fifty into a hundred, which arrived in the ninth over of the day. In alliance with his captain, the 24-year-old England batsman helped to guide Essex to their second batting point, whereupon Mark Pettini was forced to retire hurt on 42 when his back went into spasm.

When James Foster, flashing at Stuart Meaker, was caught behind shortly after and Ryan ten Doeschate was hit on the left wrist by Jade Dernbach and also forced to retire, the Brown Caps might have thought that Pettini's back problem occurring when it did was just the stroke of luck they needed.

But the session between lunch and tea saw Bopara and Tim Phillips put Essex in control with a fifth wicket partnership of 130 in 36 overs. Bopara, playing some attractive shots square of the wicket, brought his 150 up off 216 balls and, after pulling Meaker for six, his double hundred in 292 deliveries. But, then, Bopara chased a fuller delivery that was angled across him by Pedro Collins and was caught at backward point.

Essex were 427-5 at tea and shortly after the interval Phillips, who employed the cut stroke to good effect when the Surrey bowlers dropped short, reached his half-century off 135 balls. But, in the 140th over, the visitors picked up their sixth wicket when Phillips, sweeping, was caught at deep mid-wicket off Chris Schofield.

Five overs later David Masters, who contributed a valuable 43, lifted Dernbach to Michael Brown at third man before Kaneria further rubbed the Brown Caps' noses in the dirt with a quick-fire 31. However, trying to hit a third maximum, the Pakistani was caught on the cover boundary off Collins, who undid Chris Wright with an inswinging yorker three overs later to claim figures of 4-96. Still, 545 represented Essex's highest total of the summer.

Needing 117 to make their hosts bat again, the Brown Caps lost Jonathan Batty to the fourth ball of the second innings, leg before. Three deliveries from stumps, Surrey's nightwatchman Tim Linley was snapped up at forward short leg for an 11-ball duck.

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