Surrey 95 for 2 v Yorkshire
Scorecard

Yorkshire's batting line-up is often notable less for who is in it than who is absent. Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root are seldom glimpsed playing for the White Rose these days. The same might soon be true of Gary Ballance, if his unexpected England recall goes according to plan.

Now Kane Williamson has joined that trio as an unwanted absentee. Worn down by his arduous schedule - playing in all three formats of the county game is an unforgiving task, especially for international captains returning from a busy home season, the World Twenty20 and the IPL - Williamson and Yorkshire agreed that he would miss this Championship game. His fourth consecutive season at the club will end with Friday's T20 at Trent Bridge.

"It's very simple. We just thought it would aid him and be the most beneficial thing for him to have a rest. There's nothing sinister, it's as simple as that," Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie said.

"In an ideal world we'd obviously want him to play. But we felt it was in his best interests and everyone's best interests that he had a couple of days away to spend some time with his partner and clear his mind a bit. We're fully supportive of that. He's a great lad and there was some really good, honest communication. That's the good thing about it: he's confident enough coming to us as a support staff and saying 'lets open this conversation up'."

For Yorkshire, at least, the strength of the relationship between player and club indicates Williamson's desire to return to in the future. But the temptation to view Williamson's decision as an indictment of the demands of the modern cricketer are obvious. "It does highlight that scheduling is an issue," Gillespie said. "Its been an incredibly busy period for everyone. Everybody gets affected with illnesses, injuries and the like."

Williamson's decision was particularly ill-timed for Yorkshire: not only are three players absent with England but Travis Head was unable to get his visa processed in time to play against Surrey. The upshot is that Azeem Rafiq, who has a first-class average of 22.10, is down to bat at No. 5, although the sight of David Willey at No. 9 shows that Yorkshire still retain batting depth.

For the proudest of cricketing counties, this feels like a decisive juncture in the season. Last week's defeat to Middlesex at Scarbrough, while only Yorkshire's first of the season, highlighted that the team are not quite purring as during title-winning campaigns in the last two seasons.

"We had a really good chat after the game," Gillespie said. "It was an opportunity to have a midseason review. We felt, being honest, that we've played some decent cricket in patches but we haven't quite taken those opportunities we've had to take the bull by the horns, as we have in the last couple of years. That's something we're aware of. We've spoken about, as a batting group, the need to go big if you get in. We've had a lot of scores between 40 and 80 but haven't had lads going on to get those daddy hundreds to really put the pressure on the opposition. That's something we can be better at."

On the first morning at The Oval, Yorkshire bowled and fielded with a zest not to squander the chance to become the first side to win a hat-trick of titles since they themselves last managed the feat, in 1968. Andrew Hodd's diving catch, snaffling Dominic Sibley down the leg side, was particularly impressive. But after 23.1 overs of funereal batting in the gloom, during which Surrey stumbled to 36 for 2, Zafar Ansari and Aaron Finch then added 59 at a run a ball before the showers intervened.

And while Yorkshire regretted Williamson's absence, Surrey had a surprise omission of their own. Arun Harinath, whose record of 620 runs at 36.47 apiece this season is bettered only by Kumar Sangakkara, is not the complaining type, but had plenty of cause to be miffed about being dropped.