NINE wickets stand between Worcestershire and their first LV County Championship Division One victory of the season.

Surrey face the prospect of batting all the final day if they are to salvage a draw from a game that has been dominated by the hosts' first innings 701-6 declared.

The draw seemed to be the odds-on favourite as Surrey continued on the third morning where they had left off on the second evening - nulifying the home attack.

Jon Batty and Mark Ramprakash added 101 to the 64 they had compiled after Scott Newman's dismissal on day two, with the wicketkeeper-batsman reaching three figures shortly before lunch.

However, the gloveman added just 14 more to his total before he was out-foxed by a Gareth Batty delivery that held its line, found the outside edge and was gleefully pou-ched by Steven Davies.

Ali Brown joined Ramprakash and they advanced the score to 245.

Nadeem Malik then precipitated a collapse by enducing an awful shot from Ramprakash and from 245-1, Surrey fell apart, losing their remaining nine wickets for just 125 runs in 40 overs with Malik and Kabir Ali bagging two scalps each, while Kyle Hogg and Gareth Batty both picked up three.

On-loan seamer Hogg removed Chris Schofield, Mark Butcher and Ian Salisbury in quick succession during a fruitful spell from the New Road End.

Prior to that, Malik accounted for Brown with a low edge to Phil Jaques at first slip and Rikki Clarke threw his wicket away attempting a reckless reverse sweep at Batty, which he top-edged for a simple catch behind.

Kabir then trapped Azhar Mahmood lbw before Hogg's triple burst and Batty wrapped the innings up having Matt Nicholson caught at short leg by Ben Smith.

Still trailing by 331 runs, Newman and Batty looked to have batted out the remaining 31 overs of the day. But, with less than six overs to go, Malik found Batty's outside edge and Davies took the catch.

Meanwhile, Steve Rhodes has opted to revert to his one-day County line-up for tomorrow's Frie-nds Provident Trophy clash with Northants at Wantage Road, replacing Malik and Stephen Moore with Ray Price and Moeen Ali.

Worcestershire: Jaques, Solanki, Moeen Ali, Smith, Hick, Davies, Batty, Hogg, Kabir Ali, Price, Bollinger.