A pair of century stands by Gloucestershire and a flurry of six third-session wickets for Surrey made for an enthralling opening day to their LV Championship Division Two match at The Oval.

On a cracking day of cut-and-thrust cricket, Gloucestershire recovered from losing a wicket to the fifth ball of the morning to canter to 247 for two before collapsing after tea to allow Surrey back into contention.

The murky morning conditions in SE11 appeared ideally suited for the swing bowling of former Gloucestershire skipper Jon Lewis but county's new captain, Alex Gidman, elected to bat first and soon wondered if he had made the right call when opener Craig

Spearman fell leg-before to a full-length delivery in Andre Nel's opening over.

In reality Spearman had played all round a decent delivery and once the haze and cloud cover burnt off, Gidman's decision to bat was fully vindicated as Kadeer Ali and Hamish Marshall tucked in with a second-wicket stand worth 126 in 34 overs.

Marshall enjoyed one let-off when on 26, driving loosely at Nel before Surrey captain Michael Brown shelled the catch at short cover. It was tough on Brown, the first Surrey debutant to lead the county since 1946, as he had only just set the trap.

Surrey toiled a further 24 overs before their next opportunity when, with his score on 76 from 117 balls, Marshall's luck ran out as he prodded forward to Nel, the pick of the Surrey attack, only to drag the ball onto middle and leg stumps.

Kadeer survived a confident shout for a catch at short-leg against spinner Murtaza Hussain on his way to a confident 102-ball 50 with eight fours, the last of them a rasping square cut off Murtaza that sped to the ropes at point.

After tea, and with the new Triflex ball seemingly doing little or nothing off the seam, Surrey turned to spin at both ends, with the gentle seam of James Benning from the Pavilion End.

It was Benning who made inroads with two wickets in the space of five deliveries, trapping Kadeer (90) leg-before to a lackadaisical leg-side flick to end a stand of 121 in 41 overs. Gidman (69) was next to go, superbly caught behind by Jonathan Batty diving to his right.

The new ball in Nel's hands proved a little more fearsome and Chris Taylor went leg-before, the ball thudding into his front pad before going on to brush the inside edge.

Jade Dernbach also enjoyed the harder new ball taking three for seven in eight balls from the Vauxhall End.

The lively right-armer yorked Stephen Snell and pegged back the off stump of a bamboozled Ian Saxelby with his next ball, a slower full-toss.

Then, in his next over, Dernbach had Kiwi James Franklin caught throat-high at second slip after an airy, back-foot drive away from the body as Surrey ended the day on a surprising high.