James Franklin and Jon Lewis take advantage of happy hour for Gloucestershire
Surrey (18-3) trail Gloucestershire (333) by 315 runs
Surrey suffered in the Kennington gloaming on Thursday night, losing three quick wickets to Gloucestershire's strike pair of James Franklin and Jon Lewis as they threatened to drown upon their baptism in the waters of Division Two.
Conditions conspired against the day's play, rain preventing any action until 4.28pm before bad light brought a premature halt to proceedings barely an hour later. But what an hour, bringing five wickets, first cleaning up the Gloucestershire tail and then accounting for Surrey's openers.
The England and Wales Cricket Board had hardly helped the occasion by their regulation that the Oval's £3.25 million retractable floodlights cannot, perversely, be illuminated during times of bad light. But still Franklin and Lewis had time to wreak havoc with the new ball, an experimental Tiflex model that produces prodigious swing.
Laurie Evans did not aid his cause, leaving his gate wide open for Franklin to fire in a superb delivery that plucked out the right-hander's middle stump. Less than over had elapsed before the players were leaving the field due to dank conditions for the first time, but a brief break in the clouds afforded Surrey little respite, two more of the top order scuttling off as captain Michael Brown made only eight on his debut. Brown was late on a full-length ball from Franklin that reordered the stumps and reduced Surrey to 11 for two.
Matt Spriegel, in desperation, then attempted to force a shot through mid-on, but missed a late away swinger from Lewis to depart leg before and compound Surrey's anxieties.
After the loss of two full sessions to the weather Gloucestershire were able to add 11 runs to their overnight total of 321 for eight as Jade Dernbach and Andre Nel, living up to his strange alter ego as "Gunther" (according to South African folklore, a crazed mountain man starved of oxygen) resumed their swift dispatch of the tail-enders. Nel had Vikram Banerjee, fending away from the body, caught at third slip on 16, ending with fine figures of four for 52 on debut.
Dernbach had four, too, for 79, utterly beffudling last man Steven Kirby for a duck when he fashioned an inch-perfect off-cutter, terminating the Surrey innings after just 23 minutes of play.
The second day of Leicestershire's LV County Championship game against Northamptonshire at Grace Road was abandoned midway through the afternoon without a ball being bowled.
No play was possible before lunch, which was taken half an hour early, because of bad light. Persistent rain then began to fall and, after an afternoon inspection, the game was abandoned for the day shortly before 3pm with Northamptonshire still on 297 for six in their first innings.
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