The first day of Surrey vs Middlesex at the Oval was something of an important game for both teams, with Surrey needing a win and Middlesex coming of the back of a thrashing by Sussex needing points to take them away from the relegation zone.
Gareth Batty won the toss and Surrey batted, and found themselves in huge trouble as Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones carved through the weak top order. Rory Burns (6) edged to Dawid Malan at first slip before Zafar Ansari (10) edged to championship debutant keeper Adam Rossington off Roland-Jones who, after a rain delay then had Zander De Bruyn (0) LBW and next over Rory Hamilton-Brown (2) missed a straight ball and lost his middle stump as Surrey slumped to 33-4. This then became 41-5 with Arun Harinath (14) LBW to give Roland-Jones his third. Steve Davies and Jason Roy tried to launch a recovery (interrupted by more rain) against Steve Crook and Neil Dexter, but Davies was undone by late swing from Dexter, flicking one through to Rossington for 16, which led to Roy starting to thump the ball around with more urgency as his partners failed, Batty left another inswinger from Dexter and was bang in front LBW for 9, 97-7. Murali Kartik had fun with Roy walloping the ball around until Murtagh returned to bowl him for 23 before cleaning up to take 3 wickets in seven balls, Tim Linley edged to Sam Robson at slip and Jade Dernbach LBW first ball to give Murtagh 5-37 and Surrey 144 all out (Roland-Jones 3-38), now for Middlesex to push for a good lead.
This they looked doing as Chris Rogers and Robson played under the now blue(ish) skies in easier conditions to play the 32 overs left as the Surrey attack looked lifeless with Dernbach and Linley bowling fairly badly, the 50 partnership coming up from Rogers in the 15th over off De Bruyn, Rogers then went to a 71-ball 50 before slowing up towards the close, only to be bowled by a Dernbach slower ball for 56 in the penultimate over with the score on 98, Middlesex closing 99-1, only 45 behind.
