While Ramprakash was plundering 10 first-class centuries in 2007, averaging more than 100, Kruis could muster just eight Championship wickets at 51.12.

Yesterday, it was the unexpectedly irresistible force against the increasingly movable object, as Kruis belied his modest recent form with figures of 5-47, his best for Yorkshire, and Ramprakash continued his mediocre run of scores since he hit his 99th first-class hundred in May.

It might well not have been a contest at all, because had Matthew Hoggard and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan been passed fit, the likelihood is that Kruis would have lost his place to the returning Darren Gough – 13 wickets at 41.84 this season made the South African's position vulnerable. Troubled by injuries, he had not taken more than two wickets in a first-class innings for two years.

Here, he was fast, he was accurate and he found just enough movement to beat the bat. He was not flattered by his figures, which were tarnished by some slogged boundaries in a frisky 10th-wicket partnership: there were two chances put down off his bowling. The second of these allowed Surrey's last pair to add an extra 36 runs.

Coming on at first change for the ineffective Gough, whose first three overs cost 20 runs, Kruis produced a beauty to dismiss Ramprakash, delivering the ball from wide of the crease and straightening it just enough to beat the batsman's tentative prod and clip the off-bail. Ramprakash, though, was playing slightly across the line.

Three balls later, Kruis found enough lift to take Jon Batty's edge and have him brilliantly caught by Richard Pyrah, one of the finest fielders in the game; when Usman Afzaal was lbw to one that nipped back in to him, Kruis had taken three wickets in 20 balls without conceding a run, and Surrey were 71-4.

Tim Bresnan, who had ended a breezy opening stand in his first spell, returned to have Stewart Walters caught in the deep, miscuing a pull. Adil Rashid maintained his resurgence by chipping in with two wickets, both victims succumbing to his quicker, flatter ball that skids straight on.

In between, Kruis claimed his fourth and fifth scalps – Chris Jordan was caught at extra cover, and Matthew Spriegel's stumps were demolished.

The last-wicket's antics were an irritation, before a silly run-out put an end to the agricultural heaving, but Surrey were all out for 204, having won the toss.

Joy was tempered in the home dressing-room, though. In their last two Championship fixtures, Yorkshire's outwardly impressive efforts in the first innings of the game have been put into a negative perspective by subsequent events: their 410 at Canterbury was overtaken by Kent's 467, and after knocking over Nottinghamshire for 213 last week, they responded with a feeble 161.

Yesterday, however, Yorkshire's top-order helped to cast Kruis and his bowling colleagues in an even more favourable light. Despite the rain that delayed the start of play until 1.30, and the overcast conditions, the ball has not swung prodigiously, and Andrew Gale and Chris Taylor encountered few alarms as they progressed to 50-0 at the close.

Taylor and Gale made up Yorkshire's sixth different opening partnership in six games in this competition, and the club's 10th in 14 matches; in reaching 50, they did what so many of their predecessors have failed to do.

This was the team's first half-century opening stand in 32 Championship innings, dating back to June last year. They are just one innings into their partnership, and Surrey's seam attack is the least threatening in the division, and both Gale and Taylor seem happier down the order, but uncork the champagne anyway: it has been a long time since Yorkshire had anything resembling a reliable opening pair.

Their styles were contrasting yesterday: Taylor was content to keep his wicket intact, blocking and leaving his way to nine off 55 balls in the style of Joe Sayers, who was sidelined with an eye injury; Gale rarely dallies, and he sent a series of back-foot drives and ferocious pulls crashing to the fence. Despite slowing down in the closing overs, he made 38 from just 42 balls.

With Hoggard and Rana injured, Yorkshire had brought back Pyrah and David Wainwright, whose off-spin was not required, save for an over before tea. Seamer Steve Patterson, top of the averages with seven scalps at 20.57, was the unfortunate man to be omitted.


DISPLAY OF THE DAY

Deon Kruis

After an injury ravaged 18-months and some unappetising analyses, the South African was back to the form he showed in 2005 yesterday, ripping through the Surrey middle-order. He claimed 5-47, his best figures for Yorkshire.


Yorkshire v Surrey

Headingley Carnegie: Yorkshire (3pts) trail Surrey (1) by 154 runs with all 1st inns wkts standing.

Surrey First Innings

S A Newman lbw b Bresnan 29

S J Walters c Lyth b Bresnan 40

M R Ramprakash b Kruis 6

J N Batty c Pyrah b Kruis 0

U Afzaal lbw b Kruis 1

M N W Spriegel b Kruis 29

M J Nicholson lbw b A U Rashid 25

C J Jordan c A U Rashid b Kruis 7

Saqlain Mushtaq not out 22

J W Dernbach lbw b A U Rashid 1

P T Collins run out 21

Extras b11 lb7 w1 nb4 23

Total (56.1 overs) 204

Fall: 1-41 2-69 3-69 4-71 5-94 6-139 7-152 8-162 9-167

Bowling: Gough 8 2 36 0; Bresnan 13 5 36 2; Kruis 17 5 47 5; Pyrah 6 1 27 0; A U Rashid 11.1 2 40 2; Wainwright 1 1 0 0.

Yorkshire First Innings

A W Gale not out 38

C R Taylor not out 9

Extras lb1 nb2 3

Total 0 wkts (16 overs) 50

To Bat: R M Pyrah, A Lyth, J A Rudolph, G L Brophy, A U Rashid, T T Bresnan, D J Wainwright, D Gough, G J Kruis.

Bowling: Collins 6 2 18 0; Dernbach 3 0 20 0; Nicholson 4 1 10 0; Saqlain Mushtaq 2 2 0 0; Afzaal 1 0 1 0.