Close, day two: Middlesex 294 & 133-5 lead Surrey 145 by 282 runs
A sensational career-best 8-46 from spinner Ollie Rayner put Middlesex firmly in the driving seat after an incredible second day at The Oval.
Rayner ripped through the Surrey batting order and also had a hand in the two other wickets as the relegation-threatened hosts subsided from 72-1 to 145 all out.
That gave Middlesex a lead of 149, after they had lost the final three wickets of their first innings within the first hour’s play.
Surrey spinner Gary Keedy then took five wickets as Middlesex closed on 133-5, but even he was overshadowed by Rayner’s haul.
The Oval crowd was treated to 292 runs and 18 wickets on a day which could nudge Surrey closer to the drop.
Middlesex resumed on 280-7 but were only able to add 14 to their overnight total as Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker cleaned up the tail, leaving Neil Dexter stranded on 90 not out – his best Championship score since his century against Sussex in June.
James Harris removed Arun Harinath in the second over of Surrey’s reply, with Rayner taking the catch, but Rory Burns and Hashim Amla steadily repaired things.
They had taken the score to 72-1 during the afternoon session when South African run machine Amla gave Rayner another catch, this time off the bowling of Ravi Patel.
Then, the tall off-spinner had the show to himself. Having bowled five tight overs, he finally got his breakthrough when Sam Robson took a fine close catch to remove Burns for 38.
Rayner then took the wickets of Zander de Bruyn, Steven Davies and Vikram Solanki in successive overs to leave Surrey on 117-6 and quickly went on an even better streak to complete his remarkable afternoon.
This time it was wickets in four successive overs as the Surrey tail surrendered meekly and Rayner shattered his previous best of 5-49, for Sussex against Hampshire in 2008.
It was the best innings figures by a Middlesex bowler since Steven Finn’s 9-37 against Worcestershire in April 2010.
The visitors set about cementing their dominance by reaching 47-0, a lead of 196, but they lost regular wickets during the evening session.
Slow left-armer Keedy, who was brought into the attack in the fourth over, claimed 5-30 in the space of 10 overs to check Middlesex’s progress.
Chris Rogers (32) top scored, while Dawid Malan remained unbeaten on 28, and is partnered by nightwatchman James Harris.
Joe Denly has been unable to bat after being off the field all day with a bad migraine.
Follow West London Sport on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
This post was last modified on 05/09/2013