Josh Tongue and Liam Patterson-White claimed four wickets apiece as Nottinghamshire’s arm-wrestle of a clash with Surrey appears destined for a draw after day three.

Tongue led the home attack with 4/89, while left-arm spinner Patterson-White bowled a marathon 45.3 overs to return 4/135 as Surrey were dismissed for 449.

Primarily led by Dan Lawrence’s century, that gave the visitors a slender advantage of 34 on their first innings, before Ben Slater and Ben Duckett guided Notts to 99-1 at stumps, back in front by 65.

Lawrence’s innings had earlier ended three overs before lunch as a morning session otherwise dominated by his partnership with Adam Thomas proved to have a twist in its tail.

Having gone to three figures Lawrence looked to maintain his momentum by driving Tongue down the ground but could only edge the ball into the gloves of Kyle Verreynne.

The England quick then struck again before lunch as Thomas bottom-edged a pull into his stumps for 46, with his wicket signalling the arrival of lunch, at which Surrey were 306-6.

Continuing his spell into the afternoon session, Tongue struck Atkinson on the helmet twice in two overs, with the second seeing him drop to his knees and the bowler rush to his side.

Atkinson batted on for 45 minutes, but eventually left the field after feeling unwell, to be replaced by Reece Topley.

Following that, the mantle passed to Patterson-White, who removed Jordan Clark for 54 - stumped by Verreynne - as well as Dan Worrall lbw and Topley to a stunning Olly Stone catch.

In the midst of that, Stone himself claimed the other wicket to fall, that of Sean Abbott, who lost his off stump to a high-quality delivery that pitched in front and left him.

Discarded England number three, Ollie Pope, was the man left unbeaten on 19, having inexplicably been dropped down to ten.

It left Nottinghamshire to face 24 overs before the close, and although they lost skipper Haseeb Hameed to being bowled by Abbott, Duckett and Slater closed the session out.

Over the ensuing 19 overs, the duo put on an unbroken 80 to shepherd the hosts through to stumps, with Duckett ending on a fluent 35 not out and Slater on an unbeaten 42.