Half centuries from Ian Salisbury and Neil Saker guided a weakened Surrey toward calmer waters after Mark Butcher won the toss, elected to bat and was then part of a slump that saw his side go six wickets down on the stroke of lunch on the opening day. However, on a light brown pitch that showed only occasional signs of venom, the visitors will do well to restrict third-placed Essex to less than their own 330, despite reducing the hosts, in their reply, to 32 for two.

With Andy Bichel doing the damage as the first session drew to a close and Ravi Bopara claiming career best figures of five for 75, Essex certainly looked as though they had suffered less of a hangover following the sides' respective Twenty20 Cup semi-final defeats last Saturday.

Of the Surrey line-up that came into this championship contest on the back of an overwhelming victory over Worcestershire, Benning, Clarke, Kumble and Ramprakash were missing because of injury or, in Ramprakash's case, due to personal reasons.

When, during yesterday morning's warm-up, Rikki Clarke aggravated a knock to his right thumb, Richard Clinton was summoned from Surrey's second eleven fixture at Milton Keynes. Little did anyone anticipate that by the time Clinton had arrived at the ground at Colchester he would be coming in at number eight.

Nonetheless, Scott Newman was dropped in the first over and, in the sixth, Jonathan Batty was dismissed by his former team-mate, Alex Tudor, caught at slip. But thanks to Newman and Walters the Brown Caps were soon into their stride and by the eleventh over the visitors already had fifty on the board.

The seeds of doubt returned, however, when the left-handed opener was caught off a top-edged pull and his skipper nibbled at one after making little impression. Next to go was Stewart Walters, whose 41 contained just eleven scoring shots. Azhar Mahmood was then caught at gully off a lifter and Alistair Brown, failing to whip Bichel through mid-on, was adjudged leg before.

Resuming on 147 for six, Ian Salisbury led the counter attack. The former Sussex man posted a 62-ball half-century, containing eleven fours. He went on to collect a further four boundaries before pushing a simple catch to short leg off the bowling of James Middlebrook.

Meanwhile, in the 48th over, Clinton had gone to a brilliant catch, when the 24-year-old just failed to clear mid-wicket. But Neil Saker proved to be surprisingly adhesive. In two hours he forged a pair of 55-run partnerships, firstly with Salisbury and then with Nayan Doshi who was eventually caught in the slips after hanging his bat out to dry.

Bopara wrapped things up by tempting Mohammad Akram into a playing a loose cut stroke, though not before Akram had launched Tim Phillips over long-off for six. Saker finished with an unbeaten 58 off 143 balls, which included nine fours.

With ten overs to negotiate, Essex lost Varun Chopra, caught off an inside edge, and nightwatchman Mervin Westfield, playing on, to successive deliveries from Azhar, who claimed two for 7 from his five.

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