They say you make your own luck, but tell that to Surrey, whose season started with a delivery truck destroying the Hobbs Gate at their headquarters on Friday April 13. It still needs some rebuilding - so does their attack.

Ill omens prevailed, Surrey lost the toss and toiled again after their defeat by Yorkshire last week. Yet with bowling that looks as though it will struggle all season, the home side were lucky not to suffer more. The appearance, or possibly reappearance, of a fox preceded their first wicket.

The fine bushy-tailed fellow, perhaps the same one trapped on the top of the rising gasholder for two days in 2005, scooted round the outfield before lunch. Michael Brown, the opener included for the injured Michael Carberry, pulled a four in its direction before limply hanging his bat at another wide one from Mohammad Akram.

With the exception of John Crawley, leg-before to Akram, the Hampshire top order made steady and orderly progress, and only the visiting batsmen’s charity kept Surrey interested throughout and up to the third over before the close, when Dimitri Mascarenhas gave Ian Salisbury, the leg spinner, a third fortunate wicket by wildly cutting a short one to slip.

This is another excellent pitch, but there was something there when the seam bowlers got it right, especially after lunch, when a shower that cost six overs livened it up a bit.

Surrey had dropped Steve Magoffin for Akram after losing by an innings to Yorkshire and Salisbury recovered from his arm injury to replace Chris Schofield. But Mark Butcher, back from his groin injury as captain, with James Benning making way, had little fire-power and juggled them in hope.

The mercy for Surrey was that the fall of wickets kept the scoring rate down.

Jimmy Adams did a pretty fair job with 86 off 190 balls, and was looking increasingly fluent until he pulled a long hop from Salisbury to square leg. The only good part of Michael Lumb’s dismissal, after some beautiful tucks off the hip, was Jonathan Batty’s catch as the batsman was strangled down the leg side after the tea interval.

Chris Benham injected pace, cutting and pulling as he dominated a stand of 99 with Nic Pothas. But after scoring 76 from 82 balls, he cut a long hop from Rikki Clarke to point.

Hampshire’s seam bowlers may not be looking forward to bowling to Surrey’s powerful batting lineup, but with runs on the board and Shane Warne bowling in the fourth innings, the visiting team have the advantage.