If there is the strip of loam and rye grass in heaven for batsmen better than this one, God will have found a very good groundsman. Bowlers were hiding in the lengthening shadows until Adil Rashid, the 19-year-old leg spinner of whom great things are expected, showed the difference between a roller and a real spinner and took four wickets for nine runs in 15 balls in a magnificent 25-minute spell before the close.

Surrey had been cruising as easily as Yorkshire had earlier when Tim Bresnan and Jason Gillespie had compiled a stand of 246 in 62 overs, the fifth highest in first-class cricket for the ninth wicket. But from 221 for one in the 51st over, Scott Newman, who had made an excellent eleventh first-class hundred, began the collapse by mis-timing a drive off Rashid to deepish mid-on. James Ben-ning could not get off the mark and was trapped leg-before by Rashid’s quicker ball. Nayan Doshi, the nightwatchman, was beaten in the flight and was stumped and Alistair Brown edged a forward defensive shot to first slip.

Mark Ramprakash was left stunned at the other end unbeaten on 92, with 208 still needed to avoid the follow-on. It was a quite extraordinary turnaround that stole the day and gave hope not just to Yorkshire but to England. Even the normally reserved Bill Gordon, the Brit Oval groundsman, who is rarely openly moved, was enchanted and could be seen practising some shadow leg breaks as he rolled the covers on minutes later.

Rashid, only the second Brit-ish-born Asian to play for Yorkshire in the championship after Ismail Dawood, looks like the real deal. And he made an excellent 86 the day before. His run-up and action, remodelled slightly after a stress fracture in the winter, seems to be working. “We just worked on straightening him out a bit. He was approaching the crease from more of an angle and then twisting round on himself,” Steve Oldham, Yorkshire’s bowling coach, said.

Rashid had gone for four an over in his first spell, but his control and turn was such that Newman and Ramprakash never looked entirely comfortable. It was not all good news for Yorkshire, with a suggestion that Younis Khan will have to return to Jamaica with Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed for the inquest into death of Bob Woolmer, on Monday.

As the sun beat down on Surrey in the field in the morning, Bresnan, who scored his maiden first-class hundred, and Gillespie indulged their fantasies with the third highest ninth-wicket partnership in first-class cricket in this country.

Gillespie, who had stone-walled 27 balls before making a run the night before, rolled back the year to his only previous hundred, the record unbeaten 201 he scored as a nightwatchman for Australia in Bangladesh last April. Resuming on their overnight 390 for eight, the two tailenders rectified matters, milking Nayan Doshi and Chris Schofield, an England leg spinner seven seasons ago, whose efforts could not have been more different to those of Rashid. Surrey were finally put out of their agony when Bresnan was stumped at 2.25pm.

Taking a stand

283 A Warren and J Chapman, Derbyshire v Warwickshire, 1910
268 J B Commins and N Boje, South Africa A v Mashonaland, 1994
251 J W H T Douglas and S N Hare, Essex v Derbyshire, 1921
249 A S Srivastava and K Seth, Madhya Pradesh v Vidarbha, 2000
246 T T Bresnan and J N Gillespie, Yorkshire v Surrey, 2007