Even though Surrey stuck to their task manfully, an uninterrupted, if bracing, opening day to the 2006 championship campaign saw eye-catching innings from Derbyshire's Tasmanian duo, Michael Di Venuto and Travis Birt, plus a hundred partnership for the fifth wicket between Hassan Adnan and Ant Botha give the visitors the upper hand in the 2,000th first-class fixture to be played at The Oval.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Derbyshire lost Steve Stubbings early on when the 28-year-old left-hander nicked an out-swinging delivery from Jimmy Ormond. But then Michael Di Venuto and Chris Taylor set the tone by putting on 88 in fifteen overs.

Di Venuto, in particular, was quick to punish anything short. Ormond's fourth over saw him crack one four through point before pulling the next ball to the fence at backward square leg. The 32-year-old then climbed into the bowling of Rikki Clarke, whose second, third and fifth deliveries were all hooked to the boundary.

The veteran of nine one-day internationals made sixty off just 56 balls before Azhar Mahmood had him fending to second slip. That gave Surrey a route back into the game, though at one stage Di Venuto's fellow countryman Travis Burt, who struck an attractive 99 off 119 balls, suggested that the day would end up belonging in its entirety to the visitors.

Taylor also acquitted himself well, very nearly following up the hundred he made against Oxford UCCE over Easter with a composed half-century. However, with no addition to the total at lunch, the former Yorkshire batsman was adjudged leg before.

But in truth he was outclassed by Birt, who struck four sixes, two of them straight down the ground off Nayan Doshi, whom he also slog swept for another maximum in the 47th over. Five overs later Clarke, who switched ends for two further overs, served up yet another short delivery, which was promptly hoisted over the rope in front of the Lock Stand.

Birt looked odds-on to reach three figures, only to be caught down the leg-side off the returning Ormond to become the first batsman in Derbyshire history to be dismissed for 99 on his County Championship debut.

Hassan Adnan, who grew in confidence from the moment he worked Clarke through mid-wicket for successive fours, posted his fifty off 106 balls just before tea. In the 77th over, he brought up Derbyshire's third batting point by despatching Doshi for two fours either side of the wicket and progressed, without any major scares, to 88, whereupon he fell to the new cherry.

Graeme Welch, the newly appointed Derbyshire skipper, went first ball, driving hard and high to Butcher at third slip, but Mahmood's hat-trick delivery proved to be too good, cutting Ant Botha, who had helped put on 106 in 39 overs for the fifth wicket, completely in half. Botha brought up his half-century in 105 deliveries with the second of three fours in an over from Clarke. At the close the visitors were within sight of maximum batting points.

Surrey's attack, which lost Mohammad Akram in the eighth over, when the former Pakistan international pulled up with a groin strain, stuck to their task in conditions that offered precious little lateral movement, be it off the pitch or through the air. Ormond was the undoubted pick until Azhar had shaken off his early rustiness.

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