A good way to start a day is to lose an early wicket, which is what Middlesex did on the 2nd Day against Surrey at The Oval as Sam Robson was LBW to Jade Dernbach fourth ball for 29, nightwatchman Tom Smith brought up the 100 with a four off Zander De Bruyn and he and Joe Denly started a fightback.
The fightback ended with Denly caught behind by Steve Davies off Tim Linley for 17, 128-3 still 16 behind in bowler friendly conditions similar to the previous day, with similar results from the batsmen. Dawid Malan and Smith took Middlesex into the lead, and the lead to 20, before Murali Kartik from the Vauxhall End finally ended Smith's excellent resistance on 31, and had Malan caught at short leg for 22 a sharp catch from Rory Burns (who also got clopped on the head from a sweep shot), 171-5. This gave Middlesex's 2nd debutant in the match, Andy Balbirnie the opportunity to cover drive Kartik for four three times in four balls in the next over before Neil Dexter gave Kartik his third, edging to Jason Roy for 5, 186-6.
Balbirnie (14) and Steve Crook then fell in consecutive balls LBW to Gareth Batty before he caught Adam Rossington at cover off Kartik for another duck as Middlesex slumped to 188-9 having lost 4-2 in 25 balls. Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones then carted the total towards respectability as Murtagh planted Batty for six towards the pavilion as they brought up the 200 and forced Batty out of the attack. Murtagh was driving and lofting the ball well, until he tried one heave across the line too many and Rory Hamilton-Brown took a smart catch at midwicket, Middlesex 232 all out, the 44 runs for the last wicket giving them a lead of 88.
Murtagh started the 2nd innings by spraying a ball past Rossington for 5 wides, but Roland-Jones was better, and, having found the edge from Zafar Ansari (9 ball duck) watched as Sam Robson pulled off an amazing low catch to his left. Surrey then woke up, in (relatively) sunny conditions and Arun Harinath and Burns then saw off the opening bowlers before tucking into Smith, Balbirnie and Dexter as they reached 86-1 at the close, Harinath 39 and Burns on 40, only two behind with 9 wickets left.
