Tykes butchered on opening day

11:23am Thursday 22nd May 2008

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 first-class hundred.

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

New South Wales bowler Matt Nicholson (103 not out) also added insult to injury by reaching 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 11 runs short of a double century.

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

The Tykes had actually bowled quite well on a typically batsman friendly Oval pitch, reducing the hosts to 121-4 and 193-5 in the afternoon session.

Eighteen-year-old Oliver Hannon-Dalby got the prized wicket of Ramprakash for 29 just after lunch - and sparked 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 2-67 from 20 overs.

Stand-in skipper Anthony McGrath then had wicketkeeper Jon Batty smartly caught in the slips by Joe Sayers to further brighten Yorkshire's afternoon with the score on 193-5.

It was actually the 32-year-old'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 bowlers to do.

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 8in tall, can feel more than encouraged by his efforts on his first-class bow, however. He finished with 1-58 from 15 overs.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan will have better days, though. He recorded 0-79 from 17.

The Pakistani actually demonstrated his caring side late in the day when he carried a stricken pigeon - hit by a Nicholson thunderbolt - off the field.

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

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