YORKSHIRE face a huge day tomorrow in their bid to avoid Specsavers County Championship relegation having been made to follow on by Surrey at the Kia Oval.

Defeat on day four could see the White Rose slip into the Division One’s bottom two places with two matches remaining.

In reply to Surrey’s 592, they were bowled out for 394 shortly after tea during today’s third day to leave them 198 runs in arrears and 23 overs to bat before close.

They reached close on 59-1, giving them a significant lift. But there is still work to be done given they trail by 139 runs.

The pitch remains good for batting even if Surrey’s spinners Gareth Batty and Freddie van den Bergh have caused problems.

Elsewhere, second-bottom Somerset are closing in on victory over Lancashire at Taunton, while third-bottom Middlesex are likely to draw with Hampshire.

If both those results come to fruition, they would leapfrog Yorkshire should they fail to hold on.

Shaun Marsh and Alex Lees will begin day four on 27 and 19.

Yorkshire’s first-innings bowling display has been their Achilles heel in this match, although they will be frustrated that not one batsman managed to go on.

Openers Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Marsh both made 78 in the first innings, with each of their top seven making at least 25. Andrew Hodd’s battling 57 was next best.

Compare that to Surrey, who were propelled by centuries for Kumar Sangakkara, Mark Stoneman and Ben Foakes.

Championship debutant van den Bergh was the pick of the home bowlers with 3-84 from 37 overs, including Marsh stumped in the sixth over of the day.

He also had Lees caught brilliantly at square-leg one-handed by a diving Ryan Patel on the sweep for 46.

Lees stood momentarily at the crease in disbelief, no doubt thinking something along the lines of ‘when things aren’t going you’re way, that’s the kind of that happens’.

Left-armer van den Bergh also had a hand in the third dismissal of the morning, arguably the key one of the innings.

Yorkshire captain Gary Ballance had shared 53 with Lees and was set on 29 when he pushed the spinner into the short cover region and set off for a single having briefly hesitated.

Non-striker Jack Leaning sent him back, but he could not beat the throw from van den Bergh, with wicketkeeper Foakes doing the rest.

That left Yorkshire at 243-4 after 77 overs.

Leaning (32) and Hodd shared 59 for the fifth wicket either side of lunch to take Yorkshire into the 300s, but wickets fell regularly in the afternoon.

Batty had Tim Bresnan (25) caught at slip and Azeem Rafiq lbw for a duck in the 107th over as the score fell to 343-7. Thankfully, Yorkshire did manage to pick a fourth batting bonus point.

Hodd reached his fourth fifty of the campaign – his second in two matches – off 122 balls just after tea, but he was the last to go when he miscued Batty to cover trying to hit over the top.

It meant Ballance and company were following on for the third time this season.

Kohler-Cadmore then fell lbw to Curran for 12 in the 11th over of Yorkshire’s second innings as the score slipped to 24-1, but there were no more alarms.

Hodd said: "It was quite a nice surface, and the game situation required me to just bat.

"Hopefully we get a draw now. It will just take a bit of application and skill, but we have the players who have that. I don't want to bat again.

"It's going to be an important two weeks. Whatever happens at other grounds, we've just got to play really good cricket. Hopefully next week we can get a win (Warwickshire at home). If we can take some confidence from this, we can get going.

"Although I say the pitch is true, it has got some assistance for the spinners. A classy operator like Gareth Batty, who has been doing it for decades, is hard work. The debutant, van den Bergh, has had a good game so far. Hopefully they have a bit of a mare tomorrow.

"I'm enjoying my move up the order. It's been packaged as a bit of responsibility, but I think I'm just taking the shine off the second new ball for the better batsmen to come!"