Durham battled hard to reach 262 all out at the Kia Oval but it was still Surrey who had the better of day one as they seek a third successive Vitality County Championship title.
Colin Ackermann’s unbeaten 78 was a particularly creditable effort but the 33-year-old was left stranded as Dan Worrall snatched two quick wickets with the second new ball and finished with figures of four for 39.
In 12 overs’ batting before the close, Surrey then raced to 52 without loss in late afternoon sunshine with Rory Burns completing 1,000 championship runs for the season as he tucked into some loose new ball bowling to pull a six and also hit seven fours in a 46-ball 40 not out.
Surrey, county champions in 2022 and 2023, began the penultimate round of Division One matches eight points clear of second-placed Somerset, who beat them at Taunton last week, and still in control of their own destiny.
And, when they had reduced Durham to 134 for five by mid-afternoon, after opting to bowl first, it looked as if Surrey were on course to bowl their visitors out for a modest first innings total.
Ackermann and Bas de Leede, however, then added 70 in a punchy fifth wicket stand to blunt a six-pronged Surrey pace attack. De Leede struck six fours in his 36 from 54 balls before splicing a pull at a short ball from Tom Curran and offering a simple catch to wide mid on.
Sam Curran’s removal of Callum Parkinson for one just after tea, caught behind by Ben Foakes, left Durham uneasy again on 216 for seven.
But Ackermann, straight driving the younger Curran brother for one glorious four, continued to flourish while 19-year-old pacer Daniel Hogg, making his fourth first-class appearance, helped him to add a further 30 for the eighth wicket.
Hogg’s six ended with a pull at Tom Lawes that went straight into Tom Curran’s hands at deep square leg and 16-year-old left-arm fast bowler James Minto managed two fours off Clark on his first-class debut before Worrall swung one back between bat and pad to bowl him for eight.
Two balls later Chemar Holder was leg-before to a Worrall near-yorker, while Ackermann struck ten fours in his 125-ball knock.
Alex Lees and Ben McKinney had earlier given Durham’s innings a solid start although, when he was on 23 and the total 44, Lees was bowled shouldering arms to a Sam Curran no ball.
Both openers fell in Worrall’s second spell, the leader of Surrey’s attack having switched to the Pavilion End to better utilize a gentle cross breeze.
On 60, McKinney fell for 23 when he pushed away from his body and edged to Foakes and fellow left-hander Lees, captaining Durham in the injury absence of Scott Borthwick, was bowled for 36 by an absolute beauty from Worrall that ducked back into him late.
In between those wickets Tom Curran had Emilio Gay leg-before for a duck, ending an uncomfortable 12-ball stay on his Durham debut for a player who has joined on-loan ahead of a permanent move from Northamptonshire this winter.
David Bedingham, dropped by a diving Dom Sibley on 14 when he mis-hooked Lawes towards point – Sibley having run from second slip to try to get to the dropping ball – put on 51 with Ollie Robinson either side of lunch, but Surrey’s seamers would not let them get away despite Bedingham hitting consecutive fours off Lawes, through extra cover and wide of mid on.
Jordan Clark pinned Robinson leg-before for 17 and Lawes had his revenge on Bedingham by producing a perfect away-swinger to have him caught behind by a tumbling Foakes, before Ackermann marshalled the lower order to good effect.
