Honours were even at the end of the first day of the CricInfo Championship match at Headingley when Yorkshire were 61 for two in reply to Surrey's 278 after winning the toss on a good batting pitch.

Surrey had five players missing on England duty and Yorkshire three, but the large crowd was hugely entertained during an action-packed morning session when runs piled up and wickets fell.

Openers Michael Carberry and Jon Batty rattled up 35 from the first nine overs before Gavin Hamilton had Carberry caught at the second attempt by Matthew Wood at second slip and soon afterwards Batty saw his edge off Steven Kirby ricochet from Anthony McGrath at third slip to David Byas at first.

Skipper Adam Hollioake then joined Nadeem Shahid and the pair lashed 58 off six overs with Hollioake hitting some rasping boundary shots.

He had raced to 33 off 23 balls with seven fours when Kirby found an inside edge on to his pad and the ball flew to Byas who completed another slip catch.

There was no end to the drama and Kirby pinned Shahid lbw for 25 to give him three for 52 off 8.2 eventful overs.

Gary Fellows took over from Hamilton to remove Brown's off-stump in his second over and when Ryan Sidebottom returned in place of Kirby his third ball had Gary Butcher caught behind by Richard Blakey.

Surrey were 141 for six at lunch but they staged a good recovery in the afternoon after Ben Hollioake had been beaten and bowled by Sidebottom at 152.

Martin Bicknell, dropped by Byas on 12, went on to make 32 before becoming Kirby's fourth victim, but Salisbury and Saqlain defied Yorkshire with the most determined batting of the innings and they had put on 72 in 25 overs when off-spinner Richard Dawson had Salisbury caught behind for a courageous 54 from 90 balls with eight boundaries.

Saqlain was last out for an enterprising 38, slicing Hamilton to third man where Sidebottom took the catch cleanly.

Yorkshire made an uneasy start to their reply as both Matthew Wood and debutant Chris Taylor fell to slip catches in a demanding opening spell by Bicknell, but Darren Lehmann came in to accompany Anthony McGrath to the close.

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