Another Surrey fightback gives hope

There might've been only six overs possible on day two, but they might just prove to be six of the most important overs of Surrey's season.

In conditions not dissimilar to those which Surrey had to contend with yesterday morning, Sussex were on, then off, then on before finally going off before after about an hour of the day. In that time though Surrey dragged the game back to near parity, if not edging themselves slightly ahead.

Stuart Meaker set the ball rolling by forcing Yardy to glove a rapid short delivery to Mark Ramprakash with the very first ball of the day. The second ball of his next over crashed into Gatting's off stump before Murali Kartik got in on the act with the first ball of his second over, Luke Wright edging behind to Davies.

Meaker then picked up his third wicket in 13 balls trapping Brown LBW and leaving Sussex 87-6. From being 80-1, Sussex added just six runs while five wickets fell, Surrey's bowlers were once again rampant. What was so impressive was that Meaker was right on the money from the very first ball, and didn't let up. Credit of course is due to the bowlers but also to Hamilton-Brown who chose to open with Kartik when the cloudy conditions might have tempted him to go with Lewis or Dernbach.

From being miles behind the curve Surrey can realistically hope to sneak a small first innings lead. With two full days left, and a more hopeful forecast, there is still every chance of a result in our favour. That is no mean feat and this is a team which is again showing real character and fight. If they could get the batting and the bowling to fire in the same match we'll be unbeatable.

What is key, apart from the bowlers continuing their brilliant work, is that the batsmen back them up with a more gritty performance. Clearly this is not a situation that is going to deliver an enormous second innings total but sensible accumulation should result in something that will put Sussex under pressure. The next two days should be fascinating.