Australian seamer Jackson Bird took four wickets on his Nottinghamshire bow as Surrey were made to follow-on during the second day of their Specsavers County Championship match at Trent Bridge.
Bird returned figures of 4-56 as the visitors were dismissed for 225 in 67.1 overs in response to Nottinghamshire amassing 446 on the opening day of the Division One encounter.
When bad light and steady drizzle brought an early finish newly-promoted Surrey had reached 14 without loss in their second innings, still 207 runs behind.
Ben Foakes, with an eventful knock of 38, top-scored for Surrey in an innings where too many batsmen failed to capitalise after making a promising start.
Bird removed both Surrey openers, getting Rory Burns caught behind for eight, before going round the wicket to snare Arun Harinath for 23.
Harry Gurney came on as first-change bowler and packed the off side in an attempt to dislodge Steven Davies. The ploy paid dividends as an outside edge flew high to the left of first slip but was reeled in by a stunning leap from Riki Wessels.
Kumar Sangakkara, who scored 166 when the sides met in last year’s Royal London One-Day Cup semi-final, was put down at fourth slip on 27 but failed to make the most of his reprieve.
He only added five more to his score before being smartly taken at second slip by Steven Mullaney, off the medium pace of Brett Hutton.
Jason Roy, fresh from his ICC World Twenty20 exploits with England, batted in a similar vein as he hit seven boundaries in a score of 28 before being trapped lbw by Jake Ball.
Foakes was untroubled in reaching 38 but on that score he ran into a series of mini-crises, surviving an lbw decision, two confident appeals for a catch behind and a missed run-out chance before nicking Gurney through to wicketkeeper Chris Read.
Hutton demolished Sam Curran’s stumps for 20 and Samit Patel removed Surrey skipper Gareth Batty for 15 before the first in a number of stoppages for bad light.
The restart brought about a swift conclusion to the Surrey first innings as Bird picked up two lbw decisions with consecutive deliveries.
Firstly Ravi Rampaul was sent on his way after not playing a shot and then Tom Curran, who had battled his way to 35, was dismissed after playing around a full, swinging delivery.
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With the floodlights doing their best to mask the gloomy overhead conditions Surrey’s openers were sent out for a second time and Burns and Harinath managed to keep their wickets intact until the early closure, with 18 overs lost to the weather.
Debutant Bird said: “It’s nice to get a couple of early wickets, but I felt I bowled inconsistently in the middle session. I leaked more runs than I would have liked, but I’ll take four wickets.
“The team is in a pretty good position. I’ve not seen much of Jake (Ball), but he gets good pace and bounce. It’s good to have someone at the other end who can build pressure. It helps to have partnerships.
“We can improve a bit. We gave them too many four balls, but we still bowled them out for just over 200.”
Foakes said: “Notts bowled really well, they just hammered away at a length and with the overheads (conditions) it was swinging all day and nipping around, so it made it difficult for us.
“A lot of the guys applied themselves pretty well at the start, but then maybe a few things – the quality of the bowling or maybe a lapse in concentration – meant it didn’t equate to a big score that we really needed.
“I think you’ve got to value your wicket more (in Division One), but there were a lot of good balls knocking around and you’ve got to admit we were generally outplayed today, but hopefully we can come back stronger tomorrow.”
Source: ECB