Butcher leads late Surrey assault

7:52pm Wednesday 21st May 2008

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

All eyes were on former England man Mark Ramprakash, who went in search of his hundredth first-class century.

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

New South Wales bowler Matt Nicholson 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 in the morning, with Butcher 11 runs short of a double century.

They added 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 very well on a typical batsman-friendly Oval pitch, reducing the hosts to 121 for four and 193 for five in the afternoon session.

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 and the 34-year-old South African paceman finished the day with impressive figures of two for 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.

It was actually the Bradford-born all-rounder'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.

Hannon-Dalby, 6ft 8in tall, can feel more than encouraged by his efforts on his first-class bow. He finished with one for 58 from 15 overs, while fellow debutant Rana Naved-ul-Hasan will have better days after recording nought for 79 from 17.

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