Surrey built on Dan Lawrence’s third century of the season to claim a narrow first-innings advantage but the first of the summer’s two confrontations between first and second in last year’s County Championship looks to be heading for a draw.

With England opener Ben Duckett unbeaten on 35, defending champions Nottinghamshire finished day three on 99-1, putting them 65 in front after Surrey posted 449 in reply to the home side’s first-innings 415, Lawrence making 104.

Nottinghamshire’s Josh Tongue continued his build-up to the Test series against New Zealand by taking 4-89, although he was unwittingly the agent of bad news for England after putting international team-mate Gus Atkinson out of the match with delayed concussion.

Atkinson batted on for 45 minutes after being hit twice on the helmet by short deliveries from Tongue but eventually left the field after feeling unwell. Under concussion rules, he is automatically ruled out of Surrey’s next Division One match against Yorkshire, which would have been his last opportunity to find some red-ball form before the opening Test at Lord’s on 4 June.

Reece Topley takes his place in the Surrey side for the remainder of this match. Meanwhile, Ollie Pope, who normally bats at four, did not appear until eight down as a precautionary measure after he suffered a hand injury while fielding.

After Dom Sibley’s 77 in more challenging conditions on Saturday, Jordan Clark’s 54 was Surrey’s next highest score. Nottinghamshire’s left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White continued his productive start to the season with 4-135 from a marathon 45.3 overs, giving him 19 wickets for the season so far.

Lawrence’s superb innings ended three overs before lunch as a morning session otherwise dominated by his partnership with last week’s debut centurion, Adam Thomas, proved to have a twist in its tail.

Having gone to three figures with a 15th four, cut neatly to third man off Patterson-White, whom he had lofted to six over wide long-on in the previous over, Lawrence looked to maintain his momentum by driving Tongue down the ground but could only edge the ball into the gloves of Kyle Verreynne.

Tongue struck again before lunch. Having survived one chance to second slip on 37, Thomas bottom-edged a pull shot into his stumps. So impressive in making 120 in his maiden first-class innings against Sussex at the Kia Oval last week, Thomas had shared a partnership of 108 with Lawrence, saving the follow-on in the process.

Atkinson’s misfortune followed as Tongue continued his spell into the afternoon session, although there was no blame attached to the bowler, who had been forced to duck under several short-pitched balls himself on Saturday. Atkinson, moreover, has a Test hundred to his name.

Struck twice in as many overs, Atkinson sank to his knees after the second blow, prompting Tongue to rush to his side immediately. It was a surprise that he opted to continue, although he passed the initial concussion checks. When he did leave the field, it was after intervention of umpires Ian Blackwell and Nigel Llong, who clearly noticed that he was still feeling the effects.

In the circumstances, Atkinson’s 27 runs proved important as he and Clark added 51. The latter, dropped at slip on 28 off Lyndon James, went on to make a 67-ball half-century before he was stumped off Patterson-White.

His departure followed that of Sean Abbott, beaten for pace by Olly Stone, at which point Pope did emerge.

Patterson-White removed Dan Worrall lbw sweeping before Topley, the concussion substitute, top-edged him to wide long off, where Stone took a fine catch on the run.

It left Nottinghamshire to face 24 overs before the close. They lost skipper Haseeb Hameed, bowled by a ball from Abbott that straightened and kept a tad low to strike his off stump, but Duckett, still looking to cap a productive start to his season with a century, hit half a dozen fours and looked in fine fettle again. Ben Slater, another Nottinghamshire batter in good form, is 42 not out.