David Warner on Yorkshire Cricket

A rattled Darren Gough turned in one of Sunday cricket's most astonishing spells of bowling to rip the heart out of Surrey's star-studded side in the AXA League match at Headingley yesterday.

In the space of just 11 hostile deliveries, Gough claimed five wickets for two runs as Surrey slumped to 45 for seven after being 23 without loss in only the third over of their chase towards a 163 target.

The eighth wicket pair of Martin Bicknell and Ian Salisbury tried hard to save Surrey from complete humiliation and they were still together when rain wiped out the remainder of the day's play at 67 for seven in 21.3 overs.

But by then Surrey were 51 runs away from the 118 they needed to be adjudged winners under the Duckworth-Lewis system and they could have no complaints at Yorkshire taking the points.

It was impossible to imagine what was to follow as Alistair Brown began the Surrey reply in his usual whirlwind fashion by launching a violent assault which included a mishooked six off Chris Silverwood's first over and then two boundaries off Gough, whose initial over cost him 13 runs.

Silverwood at this stage looked the more aggressive of the two bowlers and he halted the Surrey charge by pinning new England captain Alec Stewart lbw, but an incident soon afterwards clearly got Gough's back up.

He appeared to have England left-hander Graham Thorpe caught behind off a wild drive and the batsman seemed about to walk until he noticed umpire 'Patsy' Harris was not going to give him out.

Thorpe stood his ground with Gough walking back to his mark unable to conceal the astonished look on his face. Gough gained swift revenge in his next over when Harris gave Thorpe out lbw - and this time it was batsman who gave the impression that he had been harshly treated.

Extra bounce off the pitch from Silverwood had Mark Butcher spearing a catch to David Byas at slip as Surrey dipped to 37 for three but the real drama was still to come.

Gough came tearing in from the football end to despatch the Hollioake brothers with consecutive deliveries, Adam losing his off-stump and Ben being lbw to his first ball, and two balls later Gough made it a triple wicket maiden by gaining another lbw decision, this time against Jason Ratcliffe.

Brown, who had seen six wickets topple while moving from 19 to 24, was the last on Gough's list and he was taken down the legside by Richard Blakey after making 29 off 22 balls with three fours and a six.

Gough was rested with figures of 6-1-25-5 but Silverwood was bowled through his marvellous spell to finish with two for 23, three of his eight overs being maidens.

Put in to bat, Yorkshire were given nothing by Surrey's tight attack and they were grateful to Anthony McGrath (39) and Bradley Parker (32) for sensible batting which helped bring about a recovery from 66 for four.

Openers Craig White and Michael Vaughan soon fell to Martin Bicknell and Joey Benjamin respectively and Byas was unfortunate to be bowled by Butcher for 12 when just one run short of completing 4,000 runs in Sunday cricket.

Darren Lehmann looked to be taking control until he was brilliantly caught by the Benjamin at third man and there were useful late runs from Gavin Hamilton before he was bowled by Adam Hollioake for 22.

Benjamin took three for 16 in eight overs and off-spinner Saqlain Mustaq was almost as frugal, giving away just 19 runs with bowling of pinpoint accuracy.

Gough said afterwards: "My wickets came just at the right time with the Texaco Trophy matches coming up - and against the right opponents.

"I did not think I bowled any better than I have done over the past 10 days or so, but sometimes you have to be patient and wait for the wickets to come.

"I did think Thorpey was out but the umpire said otherwise and you just have to get on with things but it did make me try even harder and it worked out all right in the end."

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