Matthew Wood lashed a career best 111 and Ian Harvey gave a magnificent all-round performance - but the hero of the hour for Yorkshire in their thriller with Surrey at the Oval yesterday was captain Craig White.

Yorkshire looked certain to win their opening totesport League match of the season after smashing their way to 334 for five but Surrey, led by Alistair Brown, produced plenty of fireworks of their own and had taken control at 254 for five in 31 overs with a further 80 required.

But at this vital stage White decided to enter the attack for the first time since his cartilage operation in the middle of last summer, although he was still feeling the effects of a recent bout of influenza.

White did not turn his arm over in the Championship match at Chelmsford earlier in the week but any doubts about his fitness were soon dispelled as he hit the deck with all of his customary aggression to wipe out Surrey with a burst of four wickets in ten balls at a cost of six runs.

It was one of White's best ever efforts in the competition and never had he come on to bowl at a more appropriate time.

He began by flattening Brown's off-stump with a great yorker to put paid to a blockbuster of an innings which brought him 89 runs off a mere 46 balls, an exhibition of hitting which would have annihilated Yorkshire had it continued.

Then, in his next over, White dismissed Tim Murtagh and Jimmy Ormond to put the result beyond doubt and just for good measure he went and got rid of the courageous Jon Batty, ending up with four for 13 off four destructive overs.

The last wicket fell to Harvey when Mohammed Akram was stumped off a wide and Yorkshire were home and dry by 43 runs with 6.1 overs to spare.

Some Yorkshire fans had their doubts about Harvey last season but he could not be faulted with either bat or ball on this occasion, blasting 69 in an opening partnership of 134 in 19 overs with Wood before chipping in with three crucial wickets, including that of Scott Newman with his first ball.

Harvey cracked ten fours and two sixes off 48 balls before falling to a catch in the deep, but Wood kept on carving out the runs in a faultless knock which lasted 127 balls and contained 16 fours and a six.

He overtook his previous best score of 105 not out against Somerset at Taunton at the start of the 2002 season.

Once Wood had gone, there was a final brutal assault by Anthony McGrath who required only 24 balls for his unbeaten 48 with six fours and a six.

Yorkshire soon found, however, that they were in for no easy ride and were just starting to sweat when Harvey came on to take a return catch which dismissed Newman and ended his 73 opening stand with James Benning.

The time Yorkshire were really under the cosh, however, was during a 73 stand in only six overs between Surrey captain, Mark Ramprakash, and Brown, and there was a great sigh of relief in the visitors' camp when Matthew Hoggard had Ramprakash stunningly caught on the square leg boundary by Wood for 38 with four fours and two sixes, clearing the way for White to mop up.