Northamptonshire's spinners hold the key as they push for a victory at the Oval to maintain their grip on the second promotion place in LV County Championship Division Two.

Monty Panesar, on the day he lost his ECB central contract, made the first breakthrough in Surrey's second innings and Nicky Boje claimed two wickets as Surrey closed with scores level on 116 for three.

Northamptonshire, who are one of five sides chasing promotion alongside the run-away leaders Kent, reached a useful first-innings lead of 116 after half-centuries from Andrew Hall and Johan van der Wath built on the earlier hundreds from Riki Wessels and Niall O'Brien.

However, they missed the opportunity to make an early breakthrough and put pressure on Surrey when Michael Brown was dropped at second slip on one by Riki Wessels off David Lucas.

The openers played cautiously until tea, but found the boundary more often after the interval. Panesar operated from the Vauxhall End and had a couple of appeals turned down before drawing Brown into edging a low catch to slip, just Panesar's 15th Championship wicket of the season.

His spin-partner, Boje, then struck to remove the stubborn Jon Batty with one that bounced and gave Hall his second catch at slip. Twenty minutes before the close, and in the first of six additional overs bowled because of a healthy over rate, he trapped Stewart Walters lbw as he lunged forward.

Arun Harinath and Usman Afzaal survived until the close and managed to wipe out the deficit.

Northamptonshire began the day well placed on 331 for four but Rob White, unbeaten on 63 overnight, had to resume with a runner due to a hamstring injury and could only add three before he edged Rangana Herath to the wicketkeeper.

However, Boje and Hall soon took Northamptonshire into the lead as they added 63 in 13 overs and also secured the full hand of batting points. Boje was one short of his half-century when he pushed at a delivery from Jade Dernbach that was angled across and edged behind.

His fellow South Africans, Hall and Van der Wath, kept up the tempo with some strong hitting. Van der Wath took four fours off an over from James Anyon and launched Herath for two sixes.

Hall, who drove strongly, brought up his fifty from 78 balls before falling on the stroke of lunch when he missed a sweep against Chris Schofield.

After the interval, Herath collected the lower order to finish with four for 151 from 47 overs. David Lucas was caught at silly point, Panesar drove to mid-on and Lee Daggett was leg before leaving Van der Wath unbeaten on 50.