Fisher on song against his former club as Surrey hold sway against Yorkshire

Matthew Fisher, though, was his usual sunny self, a smile across his face as he took the new ball.

Behind him, spectators in the pavilion settled into their seats for the delayed ten-past-one start, after rain had washed out the whole morning session.

Fisher’s first over against his former club - the second of the match - only widened that smile: a double-wicket maiden on a day when Yorkshire finished on 133-7 after being sent into bat.

Adam Lyth was lbw shouldering arms to one that shaped back, his body language suggesting that he thought the ball was missing the stumps.

The same fate befell Sam Whiteman, adjudged lbw propping forward to another delivery that came back in.

Surrey didn’t care, and neither did Fisher.

Two wickets in three balls. Ol’ ‘Fish’ was on fire.

Then Dan Worrall got in on the act.

Will Luxton pushed away from his body and was brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, diving to his right in front of Dom Sibley at first slip.

After 15 balls, Yorkshire were 1-3, Surrey had a bowling point, and Fisher, especially, was making the ball talk like an incorrigible gossip.

Batting, throughout, seemed a hazardous business, like sailing the Thames in a damaged dinghy.

James Wharton and Matthew Revis had a job on their hands but they seemed to relish it regardless, knuckling down in their side’s hour of need.

As Fisher hooped the ball this way and that, perhaps bowling as well as he has ever bowled, they rode their luck but defended stoically, alert to any scraps of scoring opportunity.

Twice Fisher could have had Wharton caught behind in his second over, another maiden.

He did not concede runs, in fact, until the opening ball of his fourth over, Wharton clipping him deftly off his pads.

Fisher’s opening spell of 6-3-11-2 scarcely did justice to the threat that he carried.

He looked fit, strong, a constant danger.

Slowly, surely, Wharton and Revis began to build a recovery.

Revis punched Auqib Nabi, the Indian pace bowler on his Surrey debut, to the offside boundary.

When Fisher returned for another go, Wharton sent him to the legside rope.

Such boundaries were precious, like water in a drought.

Surrey’s bowling was collectively excellent, Fisher setting the tone for an attack that gave the batsmen little to work with.

Wharton and Revis had to earn their runs, content to wait for anything loose and otherwise play with soft hands and a straight bat.

At tea, the position was decidedly healthier from Yorkshire’s perspective - 86-3 from 34 overs. Revis had 40 and Wharton 39.

After the interval, Surrey tightened things up and stifled the run-rate.

Only six runs arrived in as many overs, the pressure building and ultimately bringing three more quick wickets.

Revis fell without addition to his tea-time score, frustrated with himself when he clipped Tom Lawes off his pads to Rahul Chahal, the midwicket fielder.

It ended a stand of 91 with Wharton in 37.2 overs, a fine effort in the circumstances.

Jonny Bairstow went cheaply, trying to guide Worrall away behind square on the offside but finding Ollie Pope at second slip instead.

When Wharton fell at the start of the next over, seemingly undone by the length of a full one from Lawes and also edging to Pope at second, Yorkshire were 101-6 and the home side were back in the ascendancy.

Wharton played well for 45 from 123 balls with six fours, a solid contribution.

Back for a third spell beneath the low-lying cloud, Fisher again beat the bat several times without reward.

There was better luck for Worrall, who claimed his third wicket of the piece by finding George Hill’s outside edge to leave Yorkshire 113-7.

Dom Bess dug in for 50 minutes for an unbeaten 21, while Kuldeep Yadav, back from Test duty, gave him good support in the closing stages.

The light, however, brought matters to a close at a quarter-to-six.

David Millns and Rob White, the umpires, gave it another 15 minutes and that was that, with 36.1 overs lost to rain and bad light in the day.

Time can be made up over the next few days, with 104 overs scheduled for Thursday.

Yorkshire, in the end, would have been pleased to lose only seven wickets given the way that Fisher and his colleagues bowled.