DURHAM found themselves up against the expected trial by spin this morning and reached lunch on 141 for three, trailing by 96.

Surrey’s acting captain Gareth Batty was kind enough to grant them four more overs of tasty offerings from Stuart Meaker before bringing himself on to bowl in tandem with Gary Keedy.

Mark Stoneman took full advantage of Meaker’s generosity as he completed a run-a-ball half-century before the seamer was removed with figures of 8-0-49-0.

Batty made the breakthrough with his seventh ball of the day, which turned to have Will Smith lbw on the back foot for 27.

With Scott Borthwick coming in at three, Durham would have settled for an opening stand of 88 and they progressed watchfully to 131 before two wickets fell in three balls.

Batty had already sprung a surprise by resting Keedy to give seamer Tim Linley a burst to no avail, but when he also gave Zander de Bruyn a go Borthwick drove at his sixth ball and edged to the wicketkeeper to depart for 14.

Batty then had Stoneman caught off bat and pad at short leg for an excellent 77, made off 113 balls with 11 fours.

With 15 minutes to go to lunch, Dale Benkenstein dug in to score one, while Ben Stokes reached nine with the help of a huge straight six off Batty.

Light rain started to fall as the players left the field.