Having seemingly set up the option of inviting Sussex to follow on, by reducing the visitors to 197-7, it was Surrey who ended day three of this contest on the back foot. A vital 71 not out off 90 balls from Robin Martin-Jenkins, abetted by the Sussex tail, brought about the reversal of fortune; which was reinforced when Scott Newman and Stewart Walters went cheaply at the second time of asking. Going into the final day, the Brown Caps lead by 204, however more of a cushion is needed before Mark Ramprakash can consider declaring.

The home side opened up with Jade Dernbach from the Pavilion End and Saqlain Mushtaq from the Vauxhall End. The first run of the day, which came in the fifth over of proceedings, took Murray Goodwin to his fourth successive championship score over fifty against Surrey, in 102 deliveries.

The visitors' fourth wicket stand was worth 23 when Ollie Rayner pushed Alex Tudor out to James Benning at point, who, with just one stump to aim at, ran out Goodwin for 55 with a direct hit.

Rayner was joined by Carl Hopkinson and for the next hour the visitors showed little urgency. But after Matt Nicholson had the Sussex nightwatchman caught at second slip, Rory Hamilton-Brown announced himself by lifting Murtaza Hussain for two sixes down the ground.

Shortly after lunch, Hamilton-Brown glanced Saqlain into the gloves of Batty and in the very next over Benning had Andrew Hodd caught behind. Benning might have had another wicket to his name had a second slip been employed for Hopkinson two overs later, but the ball whistled past the lone slip and into the fence at third man.

The 26-year-old made the most of the let off by moving to a 101-ball half-century, which he brought up off the first ball following a 15-minute break for rain.

The Brown Caps took the second new ball in the 86th over. In the 88th, Hopkinson got a thick inside edge on to his leg stump to hand Dernbach a third success.

With Sussex needing another 64 to avoid the follow-on, Robin Martin-Jenkins then found useful allies in Corey Collymore and Jason Lewry, who helped to guide Sussex to a position of safety.

Other than when he edged Dernbach in-between first and second slip, Collymore was largely untroubled. Bizarrely, the West Indian contributed to his own dismissal by taking evasive action when he should have been going all out to make his ground.

Lewry also found the conditions and the bowling to his liking and at one stage played a Trescothick-like cut through cover point for four off the bowling of Tudor. Martin-Jenkins and Lewry put on 57 for the last wicket and were soon in the thick of things again.

A scenario whereby Surrey would look to force the pace went out of the window when Newman was caught behind off Martin-Jenkins in the fourth over and Walters was trapped leg before by Lewry in the fifth.

With Usman Afzaal unable to bat above number seven, after failing to take the field on account of the bruised left elbow he picked up during his innings of 58 yesterday, Mark Ramprakash and Jonathan Batty opted for calculated aggression. At the close the pair had put on an unbeaten 64 in twenty overs for the third wicket.

When he reached 16, Ramprakash became the first Surrey batsman this season to register a thousand first-class runs.

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