Captain Jonny Bairstow made a sparkling 89 and Adam Lyth passed fifty for the sixth time this season, but Yorkshire squandered a promising position on the first day against Surrey.
For the 16th County Championship game in a row at the Kia Oval the side who won the toss bowled first, but at 203-5 just before tea, with Bairstow at his attacking best, Yorkshire were in the ascendancy on a typically green-tinged pitch offering some seam movement and good carry.
Matthew Revis had helped Bairstow put on 49 but former Yorkshire team-mate Matt Fisher had Revis caught behind off the last ball before the interval and after tea Surrey took control.
Bairstow was cruising towards a hundred when he top-edged a sweep and although Yorkshire’s tailenders did secure a batting point their last five wickets fell for 52 in a total of 255.
In 13 overs before the close Surrey openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley reached 46 without loss.
Bairstow is expected to miss next week’s game against Nottinghamshire so he can join Mumbai Indians, and some of his shots would not have looked out of place in the IPL including a sumptuous straight drive off Nathan Smith – his 10th four – which brought up a 63-ball fifty in front of an appreciative crowd of more than 5,000.
Three more boundaries followed and having passed 50 for the fourth time this season he looked odd-on to convert it into a hundred. Surrey turned to off-spinner Dan Lawrence and he made the breakthrough when Bairstow top-edged a sweep to deep backward square leg, an anti-climactic end to a fine innings.
As the situation demanded, Lyth’s approach was more circumspect but his was still a crucial contribution in the first half of the day.
The left-hander and opening partner Fin Bean were relatively untroubled as they put on 52 in 75 minutes before Bean, who’d been dropped at leg gully by Lawrence on eight, drove at Tom Lawes and Kurtis Patterson, the Australian batter making his Surrey debut, took a good catch at third slip.
Lawes and Jordan Clark shared six wickets and were the pick of the Surrey attack. Clark’s extra bounce undid James Wharton while Lawes benefitted from Ben Foakes’ athleticism when Jonny Tattersall fended the ball off his hips and the Surrey keeper dived full length to his left to hold the catch.
Lyth reached his fifty off 117 balls and it took an outstanding ball to remove him, a brutish lifter from New Zealander Smith which he gloved to Foakes.
George Hill edged to second slip where Sibley held a juggling catch to give Clark his second wicket, but in the hour before tea Bairstow and Revis were caused few alarms.
One they departed in the space of nine overs, however, Surrey made short work of Yorkshire’s lower order.
Lawrence, diving to his right, took a fine return catch to dismiss Ben Coad while Jordan Thompson played well for his 30 before a top-edged pull, expertly held on the long leg rope by Jason Roy, gave Lawes his third wicket.
Clark needed only four deliveries with the second new ball to pin Jordan Buckingham on the boot and finish things off.
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