A Dent in Surrey's victory hopes

Aside from Surrey's capture of Gloucestershire's Jon Lewis for the 2012 season the other news of today was the ongoing game between the two sides in Cheltenham, and today Gloucestershire fought their way back into the game.

Arafat, Linley and Dernbach conspired to add 31 to the overnight total of 392 to give us a first innings lead of 137 and when Hamish Marshall departed in the eighth over of Gloucestershire's reply with just 12 runs on the board things were looking up for a Surrey victory. A combination of Chrises Dent and Taylor, plus an unbeaten 50 from Alex Gidman ensured that the game was approaching safety for the home side.

The the draw appears to be favourite, which is unfortunate given the strong positions of Northamptonshire and Middlesex in their respective games, promotion hopes are edging further and further into the distance. Of course there's always the chance of something special tomorrow morning, and Tim Linley and Yasir Arafat with the new ball might just provide that crucial breakthrough spell.

The Gloucestershire lead stands at 112, so they are effectively 112-4 with a full day's play left. A couple of early wickets and hopefully we'll be able to kill the game off, but with the two mean at the crease and Will Gidman still to come, it's not going to be easy.