Yorkshire 594-9dec and 266-7dec Surrey 344 and 170 (Yorkshire win by 346 runs)

Darren Gough had a single word to describe Yorkshire's performance yesterday. "Awesome," he said, and it was no exaggeration. Yorkshire beat Surrey by 346 runs, which is their second-highest defeat by runs in the whole history of the County Championship - a memorable debut for Gough as captain of his county.

He was not modest about it afterwards, and there was no reason for him to be. Yorkshire's dismissal of Surrey for 170 in their second innings at The Oval yesterday was "as good cricket as you can play." His ebullience was under control, however. He conceded that Yorkshire will lose sometimes this summer - "but we'll surprise a few teams." Surrey were astonished.

The biggest surprise yesterday was when the 2006 Strictly Come Dancing champion trapped his successor leg-before for five. The Oval wicket was flat but Gough contrived some reverse swing on a fine, misty morning and Mark Ramprakash was gone with the score on 58 and Surrey looking to bat for the rest of the day to save the match.

Ramprakash's departure seemed to have a mesmeric effect on his colleagues, who have grown so accustomed to batting on after he has made yet another hundred that they played like men who had lost their prop and fell one by one to the fast bowling of Gough (3 for 50 in 14 overs) and Matthew Hoggard (3 for 34 in 12 overs).

But a win by the fast men was not what Gough had planned for. He had thought that his match-winner would be the 19-year-old leg-spinner Adil Rashid. "I thought he was our gun," he said.

But Rashid is a skinny, young lad. "He gets tired," says Gough, "and we will have to manage him carefully." The skipper thought that he needed rest between the innings, so instead of enforcing the follow-on, he decided that Yorkshire would bat again to give Rashid more of a break, ready for yesterday's offensive.

Rashid bowled the second over of the morning session but it was Gough at the Pavilion End who was the more penetrating. He took 2 for 20 in his first six-over spell, and then Hoggard pressed home the advantage on a wicket that suited him hardly at all. Rashid, who had taken a wicket with the last ball on Friday night, did not take another until after lunch yesterday. His figures benefited from the frailty of Surrey's tail.

Gough talked as good a game off the field as he had played on it. He was confident without being cocky, saying that he had been pleased to observe that the Yorkshire team had begun to share his enthusiasm. In the past few seasons Gough has been troubled by his knee, but he says he is confident that it will support him through a long season. "I manage myself pretty well, and while I might have trouble with a hamstring or the groin, I have no worry about my knee whatsoever."

And Surrey? When Yorkshire were 127 for 5 on the first morning, all was for the best at The Oval, but the chance to take the sixth wicket was lost when Rashid was dropped off his first ball. Having survived, he put on 192 with Jacques Rudolph, Yorkshire's controversial Kolpak acquisition from South Africa, and the game had turned irretrievably. Gough might contemplate the fact that on such trifles are reputations built.