A delightful hundred from Jacques Rudolph and a new career best from Adil Rashid rescued Yorkshire, who won the first toss of the new championship season, from making a below par total on an Oval wicket that offered the bowlers appreciable carry, but precious little lateral movement.

Rudolph, making his debut for the white rose county, batted for 226 minutes in striking 122 off 170 balls, including 20 fours and three sixes. Rashid's contribution lasted 143 deliveries and included 14 fours and two leg-side maximums - the first off the bowling of Rikki Clarke and the second off Nayan Doshi.

Clarke, leading Surrey in the absence of Mark Butcher, whose injured groin was not risked, must have gone to lunch thinking captaincy to be a breeze. At that stage the visitors were 87-4 and their plight worsened ten overs later when Gerard Brophy played back to a good length ball from Steve Magoffin and, in Trevor Jesty's judgement, was out leg before.

For the next 42 overs, however, Rudolph and Rashid joined forces not only to repel Surrey, but to put their side firmly back in contention. Their 190-run alliance for the sixth wicket bettered the previous best for Yorkshire against Surrey - Irving Washington and George Hirst's 134 at Leeds in 1902.

Rashid was fortunate to have made any runs at all. In the 43rd over, the 19-year-old survived a convincing lbw shout before getting off the mark with a four to the third man boundary, which on another day would have been an overhead catch to second slip off Azhar Mahmood; who was arguably the pick of the hosts' attack.

Rudolph's first-class record of 464 runs at an average of 30.93 in nine matches in the Supersport Series in South Africa over the winter hardly suggested the Tykes had pulled off a coup by signing the 25-year-old on a three-year contract. But judging from his chanceless display yesterday, which was full of crisp cuts and sweetly-timed cover drives, his new employers will be hoping that their new acquisition remains surplus to requirements as far as the Proteas are concerned.

Rudolph was the first to seize the initiative upon the introduction of spin. He struck three fours in Doshi's first over; and, after Schofield opened his account with a maiden, the South African hit the former England leg-spinner over mid-off to reach his half-century in 84 deliveries, which he then celebrated by hoisting the 28-year-old for a straight six. Rudolph only required a further 52 balls to bring up his hundred in the 69th over, with a cut four off Doshi.

Surrey needed the arrival of the new ball to account for their two main tormentors, who fell in the space of four deliveries. Mahmood had Rashid chopping a lifting delivery on to his castle before the South African drove in the air for the first time and was caught at extra cover off Magoffin.

The Tykes' new captain, Darren Gough, showed just what he thought of the new cherry by dismissing it from his presence three times in a Magoffin over - a pull for six being followed up with two successive fours over extra cover.

The visitors finished strongly, despite the loss of Gough to a sharp catch at second slip, and as the shadow of the OCS Stand engulfed the Oval late in the day, it was as if the pre-lunch collapse had occurred at Headingley at not in south London.

In the thirteenth over, Jimmy Ormond - whose opening spell read 8-5-19-1 - had Craig White caught at gully. Nine overs later, Joe Sayers's became the first of three wickets to fall in the space of eleven deliveries; the 23-year-old left-hander fencing at a ball in Clarke's second over to give Jonathan Batty the first of two birthday presents. Anthony McGrath, pushing forward, gave Batty the other. To complete the sequence, Younis Khan was bowled off an inside edge by the Brown Caps' stand-in skipper, who ended day one with much to reflect on.

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