| LV= County Championship Division One, Kia Oval (day three) |
| Surrey 396 (109.4 overs): Foakes 125, Steel 71, Sibley 65, Smith 60; Barnard 5-65 |
| Warwickshire 163: Roach 4-64, Worrall 3-34 & 138: Mousley 61, Worrall 5-25, Clark 4-26 |
| Surrey (22 pts) beat Warwickshire (3 pts) by an innings & 97 runs |
| Match scorecard |
Leaders Surrey took just 15 minutes to finish off Warwickshire and claim their eighth County Championship win of the season.
The Bears, bowled out in the first innings inside 45 overs for 161, lasted even less time in the second innings, as from 126-7 overnight, they posted just 138.
That completed defeat by an innings and 97 runs.
Surrey have only two games left, at home to Northamptonshire and away to Hampshire – but Essex are now the only team who can prevent the reigning champions from retaining their title.
Warwickshire have now lost on their last four Championship trips to The Oval, two of them by an innings – and this one took just 24 balls for Surrey to wrap up.
From the fifth ball of the day, Dan Worrall got one to lift and Henry Brookes was caught off the shoulder of the bat by Jamie Overton in the slips.
Then in his next over, Worrall struck again for his fifth wicket of the innings when he produced a beautiful delivery to have Dan Mousley caught behind – wicketkeeper Ben Foakes’ 300th dismissal for Surrey.
Mousley had added just one run to his overnight score to depart for 61, his fifth first-class half-century of a summer that has shown promise.
But, in the next over, the Bears’ fate in this match was sealed when Chris Rushworth was bowled by Jordan Clark.
Following on from their miserable One-Day Cup semi-final defeat by Hampshire, when they were shot out for just 93, the Bears have now suffered three straight batting collapses
They were without three members of their top order, openers Rob Yates and Alex Davies, as well as Jacob Bethell, while Liam Norwell, the man whose final-day heroics last season kept them up, is still to bowl a ball this season.
They have three Championship games left this season, a return to London to face relegation battlers Middlesex at Lord’s sandwiched between home games against bottom side Northants and Somerset.
But they are 49 points clear of second-bottom Kent, they had West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite making his debut in this game, and they should in reality be safe from any genuine relegation fears themselves.
