County Championship: Surrey beat Yorkshire by one wicket

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Kia Oval (day three)

Yorkshire 185 & 82: Luxton 29; Fisher 6-25

Surrey (19 pts) beat Yorkshire (3 pts) by one wicket

Josh Blake and Matt Fisher were the Surrey heroes in a thrilling one-wicket County Championship win against Yorkshire at the Kia Oval.

For Blake, who finished on 43 not out from 183 balls, it was the innings of his cricketing life and for Fisher (33) it completed a memorable all-round match against his native and former county.

Coming together with Surrey seemingly slipping to defeat at 115-7, chasing 185, the unlikely eighth wicket pair added 55 in 23 tension-filled overs before Fisher edged a drive at George Hill to third slip.

In extraordinary scenes, Auqib Nabi then swung Ben Coad for six but skied to mid-on from the next ball with just two runs needed.

And after number 11 Dan Worrall and Blake failed to score from the next 10 balls – including a brilliant maiden from Hill, in which he beat Blake's outside edge five times and was outstanding with 4-52 from 23 overs – it was Worrall who sliced Coad away over square cover for the winning boundary.

Blake, a 27-year-old reserve wicketkeeper playing only his seventh first-class match as a makeshift top order batsman, was at the crease for four and a half hours after coming in at number four.

The left-hander hit five fours but mostly showed the sort of patience and self-discipline beyond many other players in this game.

Fisher, who on a chaotic second day took 6-25 as Yorkshire were shot out for 82 soon after Surrey had themselves succumbed for 83 against a swinging and seaming ball, played superbly for 59 balls with one of his three fours – a crashing cover drive off Jack White – perhaps the shot of a low-scoring match.

Surrey's 19-point victory takes them just above Yorkshire in the Division One table, and the stakes were high for both teams in this absorbing contest. Defeat for Yorkshire drags them into the relegation battle, while if Surrey had lost they would have been in dire trouble.

When play began 45 minutes late, following early morning rain, Surrey initially made steady progress from their overnight 27 for no wicket with openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley taking the total to 42 before the latter was leg-before to a White nip-backer.

Sibley had even managed a rare boundary clipped wide of mid wicket off White in his 21 but Surrey now decided to try to take the attack to Yorkshire's bowlers by promoting Indian leg spinner Rahul Chahar up the order from his usual tailend position to number three.

It did not work. Chahar did not play a shot in anger and was bowled for a duck by the final ball of White's same over, his fifth.

Burns, after battling through 71 balls for his 20, edged George Hill to first slip at 52 at the start of the 23rd over – only for Ollie Pope to march in and almost immediately get off the mark by advancing to Hill and swinging him over mid wicket for six from just outside off stump.

White was rested with figures of 2-14 from the first 11 overs bowled at the Vauxhall End, but Yorkshire kept up the pressure by recalling the metronomic Coad to replace him.

Pope hoicked him over long leg for six but that proved to be his second and final scoring shot as, later in the over, Coad angled one into his pads – with keeper Jonny Bairstow playing his part by standing up to the stumps to hold Pope in his crease – and won a leg-before appeal.

And it was Coad who struck a sizeable further blow for Yorkshire by bowling Ben Foakes just before lunch with a magnificent delivery that hit the outside of off stump.

Hill's brilliant grab off his own bowling removed Adam Thomas for five and Tom Lawes, soon after taking two fours in an over off White, edged a big drive at Hill head high to third slip.

From 115-7 Blake was now left with just Surrey's tail for company but Fisher applied himself to the task in determined fashion even though he required a concussion test on one when hit by a short ball from Hill that followed him as he tried to sway out of the way.

Fisher's clip high over mid wicket off Hill and a lovely Blake extra cover drive hinted at easing conditions but, with 15 needed, his dismissal left him holding his head in despair.

Nabi, the India A seamer on Surrey debut, lofted his third ball back over Hill's head for two and only eight more were required when Blake guided White to third man for four.

Then came Nabi's six, his rush of blood and Worrall's final blow to take Surrey to 187-9 from the second ball of the 73rd over – and dressing room celebrations that showed just how much it meant.

ECB Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay.