Sussex off-spinner Jack Carson took his 200th first-class wicket but half-centuries by Ryan Patel, Ben Foakes and Mahipal Lomror kept Surrey’s heads above water at gloomy Hove.

A slow pitch offered little assistance to the Sussex attack but they will be satisfied that Surrey were never able to score at more than three runs an over on an attritional day.

Surrey finished day three on 294 for 7 – trailing by 99 – but with only a day left the game seems certain to end in a draw.

That would give Surrey more breathing space above the relegation zone and strengthen Sussex’s ambition of at least emulating last season’s fourth-place finish.

There were two moments when Sussex sensed an opportunity. They reduced Surrey to 44 for 3 when Ollie Pope, parachuted into the team after being left out of England’s Test side at Edgbaston, was dismissed for just two.

But Patel and Foakes rebuilt with a stand of 111 in 30 overs before both were dismissed for the addition of eight runs.

That left Surrey 166 for 5 but Indian allrounder Lomror dug in to good effective. He took 35 balls to score his first boundary and celebrated by cuffing James Coles over the midwicket boundary later in the over.

He had a reprieve on 29 when Tom Haines, who had added Pope to an impressive list of first-class victims which includes Joe Root, returned to the attack and immediately induced a mistimed drive from Mahipol. Sub fielder Joey Evison, running back from mid-off, got both hands to the ball but couldn’t cling on.

Lomror offered another chance shortly after celebrating his fifty with a pulled six off Jack Leaning. Later in the over Haines couldn’t hold on diving to his left at slip to a thick edge.

Adam Thomas helped Lomror to add 98 for the sixth wicket before Sussex hit back with the new ball.

Lomror’s luck ran out when he dragged a wider delivery from Hunt onto middle stump and Jaydev Unadkat was finally rewarded in his 15th over when Tom Lawes slashed to backward point, but Thomas and Matt Fisher saw Surrey safely to stumps, which came ten overs early because of bad light.

At the start of the day former Surrey Academy player Sean Hunt who broke through after switching to the Cromwell Road end and removing both openers in successive overs.

Dom Sibley, dropped on one by Haines off Hunt, nibbled fatally at a ball angled across him by the left-armer before Rory Burns was squared up and Leaning took a fine catch at slip.

In his 100th first-class game, Haines then snuck a ball between Pope’s bat and pad as he pushed forward to hit the off stump.

But as the ball got softer batting became relatively straightforward. Patel and Foakes accumulated quietly and it was a surprise when Patel was bowled round his legs by Carson trying to withdraw his bat inside the line shortly after lodging his 20th first-class fifty.

When Foakes feathered an underedge to John Simpson standing up to the stumps to reward the persevering Ari Karvelas Sussex’s tails were up, but Lomror rode his luck to help steer Surrey into calmer waters.