By the end of a see-sawing second day a more disciplined performance from Surrey had enabled them to claw back a little of the ground they had lost on day one. Although James Kirtley fell to the ninth ball of the morning, snicking Tim Murtagh to Alistair Brown at second slip, Sussex advanced serenely to 156-3 through Michael Yardy and Murray Goodwin before Azhar Mahmood brought his side back into the contest with a three-wicket burst that saw off the hosts' stroke-playing middle order. After Goodwin had top-edged a pull to Jade Dernbach at long leg, the Pakistani all-rounder struck again in his next over by having Chris Adams taken at the wicket from a loose cut-cum-slash and then disposed of the dangerous Matt Prior, who edged a drive and was brilliantly caught right-handed in front of first slip by Jon Batty. This clatter of wickets gave Azhar three for 12 from seventeen balls and reduced Sussex to 180-6, offering Surrey an outside chance of securing a first innings lead, even though the home side had plenty of batting still to come - the promotion of nightwatchman Kirtley to number four had left Mushtaq Ahmed to fill the number eleven berth. Although the visitors were unable to strike another blow before lunch was taken at 195-6, with Yardy having batted through the session in converting his overnight score of one into thirty-nine, the bowlers had every right to be satisfied with a good morning's work. While the doughty Sussex left-hander had completed his 1,000 runs for the season, Dernbach had impressed for Surrey with a mature spell in support of Azhar, and both Murtagh and Doshi had been steadiness personified.

The gritty Yardy had found an equally dogged partner in Robin Martin-Jenkins in the lead-up to the break, however, and during the afternoon the seventh-wicket pair regained control for their side with an 80-run stand that gradually grew in authority and took the hosts into the lead. With the new ball looming, Murtagh finally made the breakthrough Surrey so desperately required, surprising Yardy - who made 65 from 191 balls - with a rare short-pitched delivery that induced a gloved catch to Brown at slip with the total on 260. Any hopes that the visitors might have had of tidying up the Sussex innings before tea were quickly dashed, though, as Martin-Jenkins went on to complete a sensible and well constructed half-century from 99 balls and found another sturdy ally in Luke Wright. This pair added a further sixty runs for the eighth wicket before Azhar completed his first five-wicket haul of the season by deceiving Wright with a slow, wide full-toss that the batsman, much to his annoyance, sliced straight to Richard Clinton at point three overs before tea.

With the day's middle session having yielded 143 runs and just two wickets, Sussex had clearly regained the initiative but their visitors once again hit back to shade the final session of play. Having progressed to eighty-eight from 142 balls on his recall to the County Championship line-up after a two-game absence, Martin-Jenkins perished in the third over after the restart, losing his middle stump when missing a pull at a ball from Mohammad Akram that maybe kept a little low, then Murtagh had Mushtaq taken at slip after the little leg-spinner and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan had shared an entertaining last-wicket stand of thirty-three in five overs.

Sussex's final total of 378 left them with a very useful lead of 130, which Scott Newman, principally, and Richard Clinton reduced by fifty-four in the remaining twenty-two overs of the day. This represented a very fine effort against Kirtley, Rana and Mushtaq, the home county's three most dangerous bowlers, though the latter caused a few scares along the way and showed that he could represent a real threat to Surrey on day three, even though the pitch was still pretty docile. When Newman reached fourteen he completed 1,000 first-class runs for the second successive season, a splendid performance.

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