SCOTT Borthwick took the last three Surrey wickets this morning to earn career-best bowling figures of six for 70. But he scarcely had time to draw breath before he was back at the crease.

Durham lost Will Smith to the sixth ball, caught behind off Tim Linley, as they began their pursuit of 181 to win. Gareth Batty employed his own off spin with the new ball at the other end and immediately turned one past Mark Stoneman’s bat. But the two left-handers survived and Durham were 39 for one at lunch.

Stoneman played some fine back-foot shots through the off-side in reaching 25 after enjoying a slice of luck the ball before Smith was out. He tried to turn Linley to leg and got a leading edge, which lobbed just over short extra cover for a single.

When Surrey resumed on 164 for six it took 40 minutes to make the breakthrough and 35 minutes later they were all out for 229.

With Borthwick and Mark Wood bowling initially, Durham hadn’t really threatened to take a wicket until off-spinner Ryan Buckley suddenly deceived Batty with his arm ball. The batsman was expecting turn, but it went straight on to have him lbw for 27.

Batty had put on 46 with Gary Wilson, who departed two balls later when he edged Borthwick to slip, where Paul Collingwood held his 11th championship catch of the season. Stuart Meaker clobbered Borthwick over cow corner for six, while there was some comical batting from Linley, who has a first-class average of 8.4.

He connected with a couple of ungainly sweeps and even tried a couple of reverse sweeps, one of which travelled at almost 180 degrees to its intended destination.

He also survived a difficult chance to Wood, back-pedalling at long-on, off Buckley before he followed Meaker in offering Borthwick a return catch.

Borthwick’s only previous five-wicket haul came at Hove towards the end of the 2011 season.