DAY THREE: Surrey are 171-7 in reply to Hampshire's 480-8 dec

There has been much speculation over who will replace Paul Terry as Hampshire manager but the county’s priority must be to keep Imran Tahir for the long-term.

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove is considering caretaker-manager Giles White as a replacement for Terry following the significant strides made over the last six weeks, but whoever takes over next season will be grateful for the services of Tahir.

The leg-spinner has been irrepressible since making his debut two months ago and was invaluable on the penultimate day of Hampshire’s penultimate LV County Championship match of the season against Surrey at the Brit Oval, where he broke the back of the home side’s fragile batting line-up with three wickets in four overs.

Incredibly, Tahir’s devastating spell has given Hampshire hope of a third win in four matches, despite the loss of more than a day to rain, that would give them a mathematical chance of winning the title going into the last fortnight of the season.

The turnaround has been astonishing and Tahir has been the catalyst.

He took his Championship tally for Hampshire to 35 wickets at 16.60 by taking 3-23 to push Surrey closer to the trap door.

Play did not begin until 2.15pm because of rain but Surrey closed on 171-7 after Hampshire declared on their overnight score of 480-8.

Needing 331 just to avoid the follow-on, Surrey collapsed from 78-1 to 164-7 as Tahir and Tomlinson continued to enjoy the finest seasons of their careers.

The redoubtable figure of Mark Ramprakash stands between Hampshire and the win that could take them to the top of the table, albeit temporarily, if Somerset hold Durham to a draw in what is probably a title decider at Taunton.

After Matt Spriegel (0) was caught behind in Dimi Mascarenhas’s first over, the Surrey maestro hit an unbeaten 55 (126 balls) as wickets fell at the other end.

Ramprakash has converted his last ten Championship fifties into hundreds and Surrey desperately need him to maintain that sequence.

Opener Scott Newman could do with learning some disipline from the Surrey number three.

The left-hander blazed a 67-ball 58 before carving to Michael Brown at cover point to become Tomlinson’s 60th Championship victim of the seasons.

Two balls later, Jon Batty made the schoolboy error of trying to take on Michael Carberry in the covers.

He should have known better. Sure enough, Batty’s former Surrey teammate swooped and a direct hit from more than 20 yards out left him stranded.

Tahir began with a maiden against Ramprakash when he came on just before tea, but Tomlinson struck the next blow, trapping left-hander Usman Afzaal (20) lbw midway through the final session.

The last time a Hampshire bowler took more than 60 first-class wickets in a season was in 2001, the first year at the Rose Bowl, when Tomlinson’s fellow left-armer Alan Mullally claimed 62 victims.

Tomlinson has been outstanding this year and if Tahir had been a Hampshire player from the start of the season, the Championship trophy would probably be heading to the Rose Bowl.

Surrey, meanwhile, are heading for the second division. The sight of Alex Tudor striding to the crease as Surrey’s number six emphasised the length of the home side’s tail and he was soon trapped lbw by Tahir for a ten-ball duck.

After Ramprakash had reached his fifty (from 109 balls) with a single against the Pakistani, Tahir bamboozled James Benning with two googlies, the second of which bowled the right-hander for a 14-ball 18.

With five overs of the day remaining, Tahir’s celebrations were unrestrained when his fellow spinner and compatriot, Saqlain Mushtaq, was caught at leg slip.

Hampshire bowling: Tremlett 13-2-47-0, Mascarenhas 12-6-35-1, Tomlinson 15-4-51-2, Tahir 15-4-23-3