The second delivery of the day saw Mark Butcher stroke test colleague Andrew Caddick effortlessly to the boundary, the third, a fast accurate in-swinger brought Caddick his wicket. Earlier he had won the toss on a day where start was delayed by rain and a wet outfield for forty five minutes and elected to bat. Given the conditions decision surprised many, but with the return of Saqlain and the fact that Surrey's spinners have dominated this fixture for the past three years there was certainly method in the choice.

The fall of Butcher brought Mark Ramprakash to the crease for an almost equally brief stay at the crease before he was well caught by Burns at short leg from the bowling of Bulbeck. This brought Graham Thorpe, and left him and Ward with a clear duty to rebuild the home side's innings, it wouldn't be an easy task with the ball swinging and the Somerset openers bowling performing well. For some time though, the two responded successfully and with resolution, the inevitable edges were well controlled by soft hands and what scoring opportunities came were taken, Bulbeck was seen out of the attack and his replacement, Jones proved incapable of keeping the pressure on being struck for two crisp boundaries from the bat of Ward in his opening over.

At this point though the showboat label reared its ugly head, with Caddick coming to the end of his spell, and Somerset's fourth seamer the vastly less capable Parsons in the wings Graham Thorpe flicked lazily at the last ball of the fifteenth over to gift Burns with a dolly catch. It was a foolish shot by a senior player, played just as Surrey were getting into the game and put the home side back in trouble at 56-3.

Ali Brown took a few deliveries to get off the mark, but when he did he did so he did it spectacular fashion, pulling the first ball of Jones' third over for six over square leg and driving two more boundaries from the same over, his tally would have been higher but for Burns who, this time unconsciously aided the visitors cause when struck by another boundary headed blow at short leg. Brown and Ward now looked in good form and by the time they had raced the score on to 90-3 at lunch, Surrey would have liked the session to carry on longer but both sides had some cause to be pleased with their shortened morning's work.

After the Caddick and Bulbeck, refreshed by the break came racing in again, Caddick immediately troubling Brown with a series of deliveries the like of which Sri Lanka's batsmen were not exposed to in the recent test. Ward now took the initiative in the partnership nudging, stroking and punching the ball around as the two sought to once again see off Somerset's two best bowlers. Caddick though had other plans and with the score on 106, Brown having added five to his morning score, he drew the explosive middle order batsman into snicking a thin edge to Turner behind the stumps.

Brown was quickly followed into the pavilion by Alec Stewart, who was drawn into a false shot by the now rampant Caddick and with the score on 120 for five Surrey were in serious trouble. Caddick then gave Alex Tudor such a torrid time that when Ward's fine innings was brought to an end by a sharp slip catch by Dutch even the mythic properties of the Surrey tail seemed unlikely to prolong things much further. Bicknell and Tudor though, despite heavy cloud and drizzle were able to push on as far as 153 before the rain became heavy enough to force the players off. Once again the session had been so shortened that the support bowlers were barely exposed.

The first ball after tea saw Caddick bring up his fivefer, bowling Martin Bicknell and the next phase of the patch up job was left to Salisbury and Tudor contributed 24 and whose wicket gave Jones his one success of the day. Salisbury nudged and pushed his way to a useful twenty-six and Saqlain struck twenty one runs in a style that showed the tremendous effort he has put into in recent years. By the time that Bulbeck had taken the spinners wickets the tail had done enough to earn a single batting point adding 92 for the loss of four wickets when the regulars had managed just 128 from their six.

Bicknell and Tudor were left with time to send down four probing overs to the Somerset openers, but despite an LBW appeal by Bicknell against Cox that was certainly within Daryl Harper's definition of out they were unable to pry Trescothick and Cox apart.

The weather was a crucial feature of Somerset's successful first day each of the three sessions was shortened, and this allowed Andy Caddick, their best bowler to deliver more than forty percent of the innings' 69.1 overs while his partner Bulbeck send down nearly thirty percent. There was also movement in the air throughout the day, but there is not taking away from the visitors that they played better than their hosts on the opening day, whether it will be enough to beat the weather and allow them to go on and establish a first innings lead high enough to put Surrey's spinners out of the game in the second innings remains to be seen.

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