HOPES that Will Smith’s double century might set up an innings win for Durham against Surrey at Guildford quickly receded yesterday and they will have to work hard today for the victory which will take them to the top of the table.

Although Durham improved after a sloppy start in the field the hosts closed on 185 for three, only five behind.

Smith finished unbeaten on 201 in a total of 410, giving Durham a lead of 190, but his hard work was in danger of being squandered as Surrey raced to 84 without loss from 17 overs at tea.

One over from Liam Plunkett, which included a no-ball, cost 21 runs but Durham tightened up and took a crucial wicket when rain was falling.

First-innings centurymaker Scott Newman was caught off bat and pad at silly point by Mark Stoneman off Paul Wiseman for 65.

In the next over Stewart Walters, on 22, edged Callum Thorp through Ben Harmison’s hands at first slip. But Thorp snared him for 33 with a short ball which he fenced to gully, where Steve Harmison took a good low catch.

The same partnership then struck in reverse as Harmison returned to the attack and another ball of steep bounce produced a catch for Thorp at third slip to get rid of debut boy Steve Murtagh.

But Harmison’s attempts to unsettle Jon Batty resulted in three fierce cuts for four, then Usman Afzaal drove successive balls from the paceman to the off-side boundary, followed by a hooked six.

The fourth-wicket pair had put on 59 when rain ended play with seven overs left, so Durham will need to part them early today.

The only blemish in Durham’s innings was in falling two runs short of securing maximum batting points.

They needed 54 off 13 overs after lunch and looked like strolling it when Plunkett pulled and drove two big sixes.

The first was off Schofield, who also fed Smith two boundaries with a couple of long hops.

But with the target down to 18 off four overs, Plunkett holed out at longon, and eight were needed off the 130th over with Thorp facing.

He lifted Murtaza Hussain's third ball over extra cover for four, but in trying to sweep the next he was bowled and Steve Harmison and Smith settled for singles off the last two balls.

The intention was partly to make sure Smith got to 200, but also to get the total as high as possible so that Surrey would be thoroughly disillusioned. But no sooner had the first objective been achieved than Harmison hit a Hussain full toss straight to deep midwicket.

Earlier, Phil Mustard failed to add to his overnight 62, falling in the same fashion as Michael Di Venuto when trying to cut a ball from Ormond which bounced more than expected.

Wiseman got off the mark with an edged four off Ormond and his next scoring stroke was a hooked six off Chris Jordan.

He repeated it with an even better blow on 16, but in going for a third he holed out at deep square leg for 34.

It was always likely that Wiseman would have a big role to play with the ball, but he would not have expected his initial task to be to stem the flow of runs.

Despite an aggressive spell from Steve Harmison, the ball either beat the bat or flew to the boundary as Newman sped to a 57-ball half-century. He pulled Thorp for six before slashing Plunkett’s second ball into the hedge over cover point, and after giving Plunkett one more over to redeem himself, Durham recalled Thorp after tea.

He did the job required of him, but the onus will probably be on Wiseman today to leave Durham with a reachable target.

* Durham open their Pro40 League division one programme against Middlesex at Uxbridge tomorrow, when the start has been brought forward an hour to 12.45.

That will allow them to get home earlier as they look ahead to Tuesday evening’s Twenty20 Cup quarter-final at home to Glamorgan.

SCOREBOARD

Surrey v Durham At Guildford

Overnight: Surrey 220 (S A Newman 113; B W Harmison 4-27). Durham 259- 5(W R Smith 126 no, P Mustard 62 no).

Durham First Innings W R Smith not out . . . . . . . . . . 201

P Mustard c Batty b Ormond . . . . 62

P J Wiseman c C P Murtagh b Dernbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

L E Plunkett c Hussain b Schofield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

C D Thorp b Hussain . . . . . . . . . . 6

S J Harmison c C P Murtagh b Hussain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Extras (b6 lb10 w1 nb6 pens 0) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Total (135.3 overs) . . . . . . 410

Fall: 1-15 2-15 3-21 4-73 5-128 6- 262 7-328 8-382 9-396

Score at 130 overs: 9-398

Bonus Pts: Surrey 4 Durham 7 Dernbach 28-5-76-2. Ormond 28-7-90- 4. Hussain 32.3-7-82-3. Jordan 19-5-60- 0. Schofield 23-2-69-1. Afzaal 2-0-3-0. Walters 3-0-14-0.

Surrey Second Innings Close

S A Newman c Stoneman b Wiseman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

S J Walters c S J Harmison b Thorp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

C P Murtagh c Thorp b S J Harmison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

J N Batty not out . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

U Afzaal not out . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Extras (b1 lb10 nb4 pens 0) 15

Total 3 wkts (43 overs) . . . 185

Fall: 1-96 2-112 3-126

To Bat: M N W Spriegel, C J Jordan, C P Schofield, J Ormond, Murtaza Hussain, J W Dernbach.

Bonus Pts: Surrey 4 Durham 7 Bowling: S J Harmison 13-1-73-1.

Thorp 13-4-36-1. Plunkett 2-0-29-0.

Wiseman 9-1-19-1. B W Harmison 6-2- 17-0.