Surrey draw after tail-end drama

County Championship D2, Bristol (day four): Gloucestershire 459 & 329-8d drew with Surrey 288 & 470-9
Points: Gloucestershire 12, Surrey 9

Scorecard

Surrey came within 31 runs of achieving one of the greatest ever fourth-innings chases before settling for an exciting draw with Gloucestershire in Bristol.

The Division Two winners were in real trouble when they slumped to 244-6, chasing an improbable target of 501.

But Chris Schofield (95) added 151 with Stewart Walters (67) and 68 with Neil Saker (47) in a tremendous fightback.

When Saker and Schofield fell it was 466-9 but Nayan Doshi and Jade Dernbach survived 26 balls to secure parity.

Resuming on 44-1, Jon Batty (50) and Mark Ramprakash (51) batted positively on a flat pitch until the latter was caught and bowled off a leading edge by Steve Kirby.

Batty soon edged behind before captain Mark Butcher and Ali Brown counter-attacked, cutting and pulling Vikram Banerjee around the ground as 58 runs flowed from just five overs.

But Butcher chipped a return catch to the slow left-armer, Brown was caught at slip after blasting 43 from 36 balls and when Azhar Mahmood - batting with a runner after injuring his knee - fell, the game looked up for Surrey.

However, Walters made a career-best 67 to provide fine support to Schofield and Surrey required 106 from 16 overs with three wickets remaining.

Saker raced to 47 from 42 deliveries but he was bowled by Banerjee and Schofield hoisted the rookie to mid-on.

Doshi and Dernbach opted against a late assault and the chance to make their team the eighth to score 500 or more in the fourth innings to win a first-class game.