A savage assault by Darren Lehmann on leg-spinner Ian Salisbury helped move Yorkshire to a small but valuable first innings lead of 16 against County Champions Surrey at The Oval yesterday before Chris Silverwood grabbed a wicket in the day's two remaining overs.

Surrey closed on one for one in their second innings in reply to Yorkshire's 242, Pakistani spin wizard Saqlain Mushtaq restricing the size of the lead with the outstanding figures of 6-63 from 30 overs.

A day which did not begin until after an early lunch because of morning rain ended with the match nicely balanced although Yorkshire will not want to chase a large target on a pitch giving Saqlain every assistance.

Lehmann's ferocious blast came during a 94 stand in 20 overs for the third wicket with Michael Vaughan, who also maintained his recent good form with a calmly struck 80.

Salisbury was in action from the start but untidy bowling meant Richard Blakey was able to help Vaughan add 29 before Saqlain replaced Martin Bicknell and his third ball went off the Blakey's bat and pad to Nadeem Shahid at short leg.

When Lehmann first appeared, it was Vaughan who made the early running with a couple of mid-wicket fours off Salisbury which hurried him to his 50, but then his partner took control with consecutive sweeps for four and six followed by a boundary through extra cover.

It was glorious stuff to watch and Salisbury went for another six when Lehmann drove high and straight.

Surrey were forced temporarily to remove Salisbury from the attack after 12.1 overs from the beginning of the day had cost him 72 runs.

The end of Lehmann came as something of a disappointment because he swished at Bicknell and became the seamer's 800th first class victim by hitting a catch off the bottom of the bat to Salisbury at mid-wicket.

He had scored at a run-a-ball and had lashed seven fours and two sixes.

The tempo calmed down upon Lehmann's dismissal and Salisbury was back in action after tea but it was Saqlain's faster ball which pinned Vaughan lbw moving across his stumps for a fine innings which lasted for 203 balls and contained ten boundaries.

Yorkshire were suddenly in a spin as Matthew Wood edged Salisbury's leg break to second slip and Anthony McGrath's watchful innings was similarly ended by Saqlain but spirited batting by Gary Fellows and James Middlebrook raised the 200 on the way to forging into the lead.

In consecutive overs from Saqlain, however, Middlebrook was bowled off his pads and Silverwood fell lbw to bring the Pakistani a five wicket haul in each of Surrey's last four matches. Saqlain then dismissed Ryan Sidebottom and the innings was quickly wrapped up as Matthew stepped in front against Salisbury.

But the day's final triumph belonged to Silverwood who trapped Mark Butcher leg before as the ex-England man offered no stroke at his third ball.

PPP healthcare County Championship

(Day 3 of 4)

Division One

Surrey v Yorkshire

at the Foster's Oval

Surrey First Innings - 226 (A Hollioake 48, Sidebottom 5-40, Hoggard 4-70).

Yorkshire First Innings

Byas c A J Hollioake b Salisbury ...................9

Vaughan lbw b Mushtaq 80

Blakey c Shahid b Mushtaq 10

Lehmann c Salisbury b Bicknell 55

McGrath c B Hollioake b Mushtaq 26

Wood c A Hollioake b Salisbury 4

Fellows not out 24

Middlebrook b Muchtaq 14

Silverwood lbw b Mushtaq 1

Sidebottom lbw b Mushtaq 0

Hoggard lbw b Salisbury 0

Extras b4 lb11 nb4 19

Total 242

Fall: 1-33 2-64 3-158 4-189 5-194 6-198 7-235 8-237 9-241

Bbowling: Bicknell 24.1-8-40-1, Greenidge 6-3-18-0, B Hollioake 2-1-1-0, Mushtaq 30-8-63-6, Salisbury 24.3-2-105-3.

Surrey Second innings

Butcher lbw b Silverwood 0

Ward not out 0

Salisbury not out 1

Extras 0

Total for 1 wkt (2 overs) 1

Fall: 1-0

Bowling: Silverwood 1-0-1-1 Hoggard 1-1-0-0