Leicestershire's first-innings batting woes returned as they collapsed horribly on the opening day of their Championship match against Surrey at Grace Road.

A catalogue of misjudgements and rash shots saw them hustled out for a paltry 165 on a good pitch, Surrey seamer Jade Dernbach returning career-best figures of 6-47.

Only Tom New, who top-scored with 44 before he was last man out, could take any degree of satisfaction from his performance with the bat

Boeta Dippenaar briefly prospered for his 39 but elsewhere there was little else of substance to trouble the visitors.

All of which was put into perspective as Surrey closed on 121-1, batting 49 overs, longer than County had managed for their entire innings, with Michael Brown 46 not out and Mark Ramprakash unbeaten on 29.

They showed patience, a trait which was desperately lacking from Leicestershire's batters, who paid the price.

County did not seem to recover from the loss of Matthew Boyce in only the third over of the morning, the left-hander leaving a ball from Dernbach which swung in late and flattened his off-stump.

Josh Cobb looks as though he is still feeling his way into the opening role and an attempted off-drive ended with him edging a sharp catch to Chris Schofield at second slip as Dernbach's day got better.

There was a greater degree of fluency about HD Ackerman's batting.

But, just as he appeared to be getting into his stride, the South African edged Chris Jordan to wicket-keeper John Batty.

Jim Allenby was smartly taken low down at second slip by Schofield before he had scored as Jordan found some extra bounce – and so it continued.

By lunch Leicestershire had slumped to 89-6 with Dippenaar and James Taylor also back in the pavilion.

The prospects of a recovery hinged on New but, as well as he played, going in at No.7 having been handed the wicket-keeping duties, he could do little to arrest the slide.

Dernbach mopped up the remainder of the innings as he claimed 4-23 at the start of the afternoon session.

He deceived New with a clever slower ball to bring the curtain down on a miserable batting performance.

Leicestershire were left with no batting points for the third time in five matches.

Not that the second half of the day inspired much hope, either. At least the County bowlers did show some discipline in ensuring that the Surrey batters had to work for their runs.

The only success, though, came when Claude Henderson induced a mis-cue from Scott Newman and Cobb held a steepler running in from long on.

AJ Harris and New were convinced that they had combined to remove Brown when he was on only four, while Allenby, bowling off-spin, also felt he had Ramprakash caught at the wicket at the start of the final over.

Leicestershire might have thought they were hard done by on both occasions.

At stumps, though, the position they found themselves in was almost entirely of their own making.