Surrey take greater satisfaction from opening day at Scarborough

Championship leaders Surrey had much the greater cause for satisfaction on an intriguing opening day to their crunch match with third-placed Yorkshire at Scarborough which was watched by a crowd that built up to around the 6,000 mark.

Put in to bat on a greenish pitch and in conditions which assisted swing Surrey stumbled after a confident start but then recovered again through enterprising knocks from wicketkeeper Jon Batty, Ian Salisbury and Alex Tudor to close on 330 for eight.

Opener Ian Ward, dropped by Gavin Hamilton at third slip when 12, batted throughout the morning session for 39 and by the time he was caught at mid-wicket for 59 during a hostile spell from Matthew Hoggard he had faced 112 balls and struck seven boundaries, putting on 64 for the second wicket with Nadeem Shahid and 54 with Adam Hollioake who also fell to Hoggard to become one of four victims behind the stumps for Simon Guy.

Pace bowler Greg Lambert celebrated his first class debut by having Alistair Brown caught behind and when Ben Hollioake and Gary Butcher departed Surrey had stumbled to 197 for seven.

Yorkshire were left to regret not including a specialist spinner, however, as Batty, assisted by Ian Salisbury, blunted the tiring pace attack with a breezy 78 stand which ended when a full toss from Darren Lehmann was drilled straight to mid-off by Batty who was out for 47 off 100 deliveries with six fours.

But there was more pain to come for Yorkshire as Salisbury and Tudor blazed their way to an unbroken ninth wicket stand of 55 in 12 overs, Salisbury finishing unbeaten on 47 and Tudor 23.