With seventeen wickets falling at the Oval yesterday, the only way this contest will end in a draw is if the final two days fall victim to the weather. Once again, the Brown Caps did little wrong with the ball, but the difference could yet prove to be Steve Harmison. The England fast bowler kept alive the visitors' hopes of victory with a firey spell during which he lopped off the top of Surrey's batting order to leave the home side needing a tricky 107 to win with seven wickets remaining.

Durham, who began their second innings 52 runs in arrears, soon lost Gareth Breese and Gordon Muchall to catches behind, but then recovered some composure in the period immediately after lunch thanks to a 70-run partnership between Paul Wiseman and Dale Benkenstein for the fourth wicket.

Four wickets then fell in the space of six overs. Wiseman, who had been strong through the off-side, went leg before to a quicker ball from Chris Schofield. Phil Mustard was next to depart, caught at silly point via the pad. He was followed by the Durham skipper, who misread a slower delivery from Neil Saker to be caught at short cover. To complete the sequence, Saker had Ottis Gibson palpably leg before two overs later.

Will Smith, who had to bat at seven after being off the field during the first day with a stomach bug, and Liam Plunkett put on 65 in sixteen overs for the eighth wicket before Matt Nicholson returned to clean up the visitors for 204 second time round.

Smith announced himself by driving Saker through the covers for two successive fours and latched on to anything short and slightly wide from Schofield. Plunkett could have been caught for 19, when he clipped Harbhajan Singh to short leg. Two overs later, the England seamer swept Harbhajan for six. But then Smith, who coped better than most with the vagaries of the lively pitch, chopped Nicholson on to his stumps.

The Australian finished with figures of 4-44 to add to the 3-37 he took in the first innings when he had Mark Davies flashing and Plunkett caught at mid-wicket after the 22-year-old's eyes lit up at one Nicholson had dug in.

With Steve Harmison taking 3-15 in seven overs, the match was fined poised when bad light and then rain put paid to the final hour.

Jon Batty fended a wicked ball from the England fast bowler to the finer of two gullies in the sixth over. Extra bounce did for Mark Ramprakash, who was caught behind off the shoulder of his bat and in the tenth over, and Scott Newman, shaping to hook, was strangled down the leg-side. However, the 27-year-old left-hander stood his ground momentarily and suggested to the umpires that the ball had come off his shirt.

Mark Butcher eased some of the tension by cutting two successive fours off Plunkett. Stewart Walters did likewise by getting inside two short balls from Harmison and helping them to the third man boundary.

Earlier, Surrey added 45 to their overnight total for the loss of four wickets. Gibson took two wickets in two balls, Schofield edging a poor shot to Mustard before Harbhajan was hit on the boot by a straight yorker. Harmison roared in to complete the job by plucking out Jade Dernbach's leg stump.

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