ANDREW Gale and Joe Root, Yorkshire's coach and captain, pointed to missed chances in the field as the primary reason for their Specsavers County Championship innings defeat to Surrey at the Kia Oval.

Yorkshire suffered their second loss in five matches this season inside an hour of day four, by an innings and 17 runs.

Made to follow on 185 runs behind Surrey's first-innings 414, they were bowled out for 168 second time around, having started the day on 142-5.

Surrey were boosted by stand-out displays from youngsters Ollie Pope, who made a career-best 158 not out, and Sam Curran's 10-101, his maiden 10-wicket match haul.

Coach Gale, whose side had Surrey at 162-6 on Friday's first day, said: "We can talk about the batting again, which was below par, but we had four chances on the first day. We had them on the rack.

"We missed a run out with Pope and dropped Rikki Clarke at slip. We should have bowled them out for 220, and it's a different game.

"It definitely wasn't a 400 pitch. It seamed all game. Batting was tough. It wasn't a normal Oval, but you can't afford to miss those chances.

"Curran bowled well. He looks a promising young cricketer, as does Pope. A lot of credit to Surrey - they outplayed us."

Gale went on: "I thought our second-innings batting was a lot better even though we got rolled out. I thought Adam Lyth showed the old Adam Lyth (for his fifty).

"If we can get our senior players playing more like that, we'll start to make some runs.

"We've spoken at length about our batting. It's almost gone past that now. It's about standing up and doing it."

Yorkshire lost their last five wickets for 26 runs in the first hour of play, including Jonny Bairstow caught behind off Rikki Clarke for 29. They then slipped from 164-6 to 164-9.

Captain for the weekend Root echoed Gale's comments.

He said: "There's been a lot of chat about our batting over the last couple of weeks, but what cost us was getting them at 170-6 and missing those four chances.

"If we'd have bowled them out for 230-240, it's a different game because batting last, as you saw today, wasn't easy.

"Their two young lads were very impressive. On a wicket that offered a bit, Ollie played really well. He has a good, all-round game and put our bowlers under pressure.

"Sam bowled nicely. To back it up having enforced the follow-on was impressive.

"We're not far away at all with the bat.

"It's been very challenging at the start of the season, but I thought for the majority of time this game, we were got out from some skilful bowling.

"You can't really fault that. It's more when you get your opportunities of getting to 30 or 40, making it count.

"We've won two games of cricket this year and not played anywhere near our best. If we get that right, we'll be a really strong side and be right up there."

Yorkshire's next Championship match is not until the end of June due to the start of the Royal London One-Day Cup, which begins for Yorkshire at Durham on Friday.

Gale added: "The break comes at a good time for us, particularly from a batting point of view, because one-day cricket can free you up a bit and get some confidence."