Surrey v Yorkshire (County Championship) : Day One

YORKSHIRE were left to rue a damaging evening session as Surrey's batsman took charge of the County Championship clash at the Oval on yesterday's opening day.

All eyes were on ex-England man Mark Ramprakash, who went in search of his 100th firstclass hundred.

But it was another former England international, the current Surrey captain Mark Butcher, who smashed a brilliant 189 not out, with 25 fours and a six, to guide his side to a mammoth 396- 5 at close last night.

New South Wales bowler Matt Nicholson, 103, also added insult to injury by completing his fourth first-class career century in the last over of the day.

The experienced pair will resume their unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 203 this morning, with Butcher eleven runs short of a double century. Butcher reached his three figures off 161 balls, while Nicholson got there, despite a few nervous moments, just before stumps.

They claimed 183 runs in the 31 overs bowled in the evening session at an alarming rate of 5.90 runs per over.

The Tykes had actually bowled quite well on a typical batsmanfriendly Oval pitch, reducing the hosts to 121 for four and 193 for five in the afternoon session.

Oliver Hannon-Dalby, 18, got the prize wicket of Ramprakash for 29 just after lunch, sparking a collapse of three wickets for nine runs in 20 balls.

Deon Kruis, who in the end was the pick of Yorkshire's bowlers, removed Ally Brown and Usman Afzaal for ducks. The 34-year-old South African paceman finished the day with impressive figures of two for 67 from 20 overs.

Stand-in skipper Anthony Mc- Grath, replacing the rested Darren Gough, then had wicketkeeper Jon Batty smartly caught in the slips by Joe Sayers to further brighten Yorkshire's afternoon with the score on 193 for five. It was actually the 32-yearold's 100th first-class wicket for the White Rose county, England, England A and the MCC.

With Butcher having won the toss and electing to bat, Yorkshire were definitely in command at that stage of the day. But that was as good as it got for the Tykes, who then chased leather to all parts of the ground.

Nicholson, who was dropped on 60 by Bresnan at slip, played some conventional strokes down the ground, while also clubbing a few, as you would expect from a bowler.

Butcher, on the other hand, was classical all around the wicket, hitting leg-spinner Adil Rashid for a meaty six over straight mid-wicket.

Hannon-Dalby, 6ft 8inches tall, can feel more than encouraged by his efforts on his first-class bow. He finished with one from 58 from 15 overs, though Rana Naved-ul-Hasan will have better days after taking no wicket for 79 from 17.

Yorkshire will have to atack Surrey early in proceedings this morning if they are to have any chance of forcing more than a draw.

They have a further 34 overs to claim four wickets and the three maximum bowling points.

Scoreboard

Surrey v Yorkshire At The Brit Oval

Surrey Won Toss

Surrey First Innings Close

S A Newman c Brophy b Bresnan ... 21

M A Butcher not out ... 189

M R Ramprakash c McGrath b Hannon-Dalby 29

U Afzaal c Brophy b Kruis ... 0

A D Brown lbw b Kruis ... 0

J N Batty c Sayers b McGrath ... 26 M J Nicholson not out ...103

Extras (b3 lb13 nb12 pens 0) ... 28

Total 5 wkts (97 overs) ...396

Fall: 1-41 2-112 3-113 4-121 5-193

To Bat: J Ormond, Saqlain Mushtaq, Murtaza Hussain, P T Collins.

Bowling: Naved-ul-Hasan 17-2-79-0. Kruis 20- 2-67-2. Hannon-Dalby 15-2-58-1. Bresnan 18- 1-85-1. A U Rashid 18-1-51-0. McGrath 7-0-25- 1. Rudolph 2-0-15-0.