SOUTH African Jacques Rudolph marked his Yorkshire debut with a sparkling century.

He and Adil Rashid stunned Surrey by featuring in a record stand on the opening day of the LV County Championship season at the Brit Oval yesterday.

The left-handed Rudolph weighed in with a sweetly-timed 122 to notch the first Championship century on a Yorkshire debut since Ashley Metcalfe hit 122 against Nottinghamshire at Bradford Park Avenue in 1983.

And watching every one of Rudolph's magical shots was new director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon, who two years before Metcalfe had also compiled a Championship century on debut off Essex's attack at Headingley.

The 25-year-old left-hander showed his huge talent with elegant strokeplay but he never entirely outshone 19-year-old Rashid who survived a chance before he had scored to go on and make a thrilling career-best 86.

The gallant pair rescued Yorkshire from the depths of 127-5 with their county's record sixth-wicket stand against Surrey of 190, easily beating the 134 set by Irving Washington and George Hirst at Headingley 105 years' ago.

Rudolph's innings was faultless and he combined perfectly executed ground shots with crisply struck aerial blows whenever the occasion demanded.

Rashid also went over the top in some style and he thumped left-arm spinner Nayan Doshi,into the crowd and then swept him to the boundary to reach his 50 off only 71 balls with eight fours and two sixes.

Leg-spinner Chris Schofield also received harsh treatment and Rudolph completed the 20th century of his career and his first in England off just 136 deliveries with 16 fours and three sixes.

It was in some desperation that Surrey took the new ball after 80 overs with the score on 316-5 but the move paid off because both batsmen soon departed within the space of three balls.

Rashid, within sight of a maiden century, chopped Azhar Mahmood into his stumps after facing 143 balls and hammering 14 fours and two sixes. In the following over from Steve Magoffin Rudolph drove into the covers for Mark Ramprakash to hold on to the catch, the batsman having received 170 balls off which he struck 20 fours and three sixes.

Although relieved to get rid of both batsmen, Surrey were still left to rue the fact that Mahmood had Rashid dropped at second slip before he had got off the mark. Had he been dismissed at that stage Yorkshire would have been reeling on 132-6.

Darren Gough had marked his return to Yorkshire as captain by winning the toss and although his side battled well early on they hit big trouble shortly before lunch as three wickets fell in 11 balls while four runs were being added to leave them struggling on 73-4.

One of the wickets to fall during this bleak period was that of Younus Khan who struck his first ball for Yorkshire for four but had not added to his account when he was bowled by the hostile Nikki Clarke.

After Rudolph and Rashid had completed their rescue act, Gough cleared the ground with a six on his way to 23 before Mahmood struck again by having him taken in the slips and Yorkshire went on to finish a highly satisfactory day on 390-8, just ten runs away from maximum batting bonus points.