Yorkshire are keeping fingers tightly crossed that there is a big improvement in their fast bowling when they open their defence of the County Championship against favourites Surrey at Headingley tomorrow.

New skipper Darren Lehmann is the only addition to the team which yesterday crushed Bradford-Leeds Universities but he must have had serious reservations over whether to include Gavin Hamilton.

Lehmann admitted that the bowling so far "looked underdone" but he hoped they had got the kinks out of their armour before taking on Surrey.

"They are a good side and we would have preferred to have played them later on and with a full squad to choose from. But at least we are taking them on at home and they never like batting at Headingley," he said.

Although concerned about some of the bowling, Lehmann was impressed with how Scott Richardson and Michael Lumb had batted against the Universities, when both hit 121.

"Richardson put up his hands at just the right time and Lumb confirmed what we already know - that he has got lots of talent and is a class player who should go a lot further in the game."

Yorkshire always knew the opener against Surrey would be hard, but had perhaps not appreciated just how tough it is likely to be.

Darren Gough, Craig White and Anthony McGrath are all missing because of injuries, while Surrey come fresh from their ten-wicket mauling of Sussex.

Former Yorkshire captain, David Byas, now with Lancashire, will be keeping a particularly close watch on how the game goes because it was coach Wayne Clark's decision to rest Lehmann from the Surrey game at The Oval last season which caused a rift between Byas and the two Australians.

Yorkshire had just beaten Glamorgan to make sure of the Championship and Byas wanted to field a full-strength side against Surrey in the hope that they would beat the 'Brown Hats' and send them tumbling into the Second Division.

But Lehmann and others were allowed to rest and Yorkshire plunged to a humiliating defeat by an innings and 46 runs with Surrey going on to avoid relegation.

Yorkshire (from): Wood, Richardson, Lumb, Lehmann, Taylor, Fellows, Hamilton, Blakey, Sidebottom, Silverwood, Kirby, Dawson.

Surrey (from): Butcher, Ward, Ramprakash, Stewart, Brown, Shahid, Azhar Mahmood, Tudor, Bicknell, Ormond, Giddins, Carberry.

Yorkshire completed victory over the students by an innings and 61 runs, but the big win was not as satisfactory as a glance at the scorebook might suggest.

The margin would have been much greater if Yorkshire's bowling had always been as sharp as they would have liked.

Steven Kirby was occasionally erratic but the main offender was Hamilton, who was so off-target as to give real cause for concern.

On the second evening, Hamilton sent down three wides and three no-balls in the final over of the day and in two overs yesterday morning he bowled four wides before being temporarily removed from the attack.

Hamilton at times looked quite distraught and a match analysis of one wicket for 74 against such youthful opponents will not have done anything to boost the confidence of this cheerful all-rounder.

Fortunately for Yorkshire, Chris Silverwood bowled well in both innings and Ryan Sidebottom hit the mark second time around to take three for 22, but Yorkshire will be most pleased that Gary Fellows bowled a devastating spell just before lunch, in which he picked up four wickets in 12 balls at a cost of three runs.

The Universities' side had every reason to feel proud of their achievement of taking a game into its third day for the first time in their last four outings, and coach Kevin Sharp will be satisfied with the amount of effort which everyone put into their game.

Captain Chris Elstub bowled well enough to suggest he will be a contender for a Yorkshire place when the Universities' season ends in mid-June.

The one batsman of class in their line-up was Durham Academy's Hiran Marambe, who top scored in each innings with 33 and 35. He held things together yesterday for 94 balls.