Essex driven Batty

County Championship D1, Chelmsford, day three: Surrey 376 & 381-7 (at close); Essex 252

Match scorecard

Essex will face a final day survival battle after a career best batting performance by Surrey's Jon Batty.

He hit a six and 23 fours in making an unbeaten 168 before rain ended play early with his side holding a 505-run lead.

Wicket-keeper Batty shared an opening stand of 102 with Ian Ward, who was bowled by Jon Dakin one short of a fifty.

Essex won nine games chasing targets last season and we wanted to make sure that we didn't provide them with a opportunity to win this one

Adam Hollioake

Graham Napier dismissed Mark Ramprakash and Graham Thorpe cheaply, but Alistair Brown rattled up 64 off 57 balls and skipper Adam Hollioake contributed 51.

Napier returned in the final session for the wickets of Azhar Mahmood (16) and first innings centurion Martin Bicknell (13) to finish with 4-124.

But there was no stopping Batty, whose century came up in just under four hours, as he surpassed the 151 he made against Somerset at Taunton last summer.

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Essex: D D J Robinson, W I Jefferson, A P Grayson, A Flower, A Habib, R C Irani (Capt), J S Foster (Wkt), J M Dakin, G R Napier, J D Middlebrook, S A Brant.

Surrey: I J Ward, J N Batty (Wkt), M R Ramprakash, G P Thorpe, A D Brown, A J Hollioake (Capt), J Ormond, Azhar Mahmood, M P Bicknell, I D K Salisbury, Saqlain Mushtaq.