Kent win by four wickets

KENT moved back to the top of the Frizzell Championship first division after clinching a remarkable four wicket win over Surrey with just five balls of this Guildford Festival game remaining.

After a dire first session watched by barely 200 people the game appeared set for a dull draw, but a sudden Surrey collapse set up a Kent run chase of 231 in the 35 remaining overs.

Needing 6.6 an over at first, they made a sensible and steady start through Rob Key (47) and skipper David Fulton (31) in an opening stand of 83 in 14 overs.

The pair then fell in consecutive overs and as Matthew Walker and Martin van Jaarsveld re-grouped so the asking rate edged above eight an over.

Walker, having been bowled off a Mohammad Akram no ball when on 10, took the game into its final hour before going leg before for 18 when working across the line to the same bowler.

Darren Stevens holed out to the deep mid-wicket soon after and when Martin van Jaarsveld perished when reverse sweeping to go for 25 the pursuit appeared to be running out of impetus.

But Andrew Hall then teamed up with his South African one-day international team-mate Justin Kemp to swing fortunes back the way of Kent.

Hall clubbed a six and two fours on his way to 17 from 16 balls but when he pulled a short one into the hands of deep mid-wicket to make it 175 for six the game again hung in the balance.

But with the asking rate edging toward 10 an over first innings centurion Kemp then stepped up to the hitting plate to form an unlikely 'little and large' match-winning partnership with Niall O’Brien.

Needing 55 from the last six overs they paced the chase to perfection, taking the singles when offered and clubbing the bad balls as hard and as far as they could.

Despite the fact that home skipper Mark Ramprakash was able to have nine fielders back on the ropes on occasion, Kemp played his game to perfection, hitting three sixes into the adjacent Woodbridge Road and losing one ball in the process.

He and O’Brien took 17 off Jimmy Ormond’s penultimate over of the game including Kemp’s last six onto the busy A322, leaving O’Brien to win it with a punched extra cover drive for four from the first ball of Azhar Mahmood’s final over.

The Kent players hugged and hollered on the players’ balcony as the ball hit the ropes safe in the knowledge that 21 points had been banked and their championship aspirations had been re-kindled.

To rub salt into Surrey’s wounds, they were docked half a point for slow over rates.

Yet prior to the lunch break there had been little or no sign of the excitement to come later in the day during a dour first session in which the hugely experienced Mark Ramprakash and Graham Thorpe appeared content to bat time rather than pick of crucial runs.

The pair added a painfully slow 97 in 37 overs before Thorpe, pushing forward at van Jaarsveld’s off-spinners, edged to Stevens at first slip to go three short of a half-century.

In the entire session Surrey scored only six boundaries, two of which came from Min Patel’s first over of the day.

The lunch interval seemingly broke the concentration of Ramprakash (62) as he nicked into the glove’s of Niall O’Brien to spark a dramatic collapse in which the hosts lost their last seven wickets for 58 runs in under two hours.

Kent still believed the game was meandering toward a draw, however, so when the ball was tossed to Matthew Walker it came as a shock when Ali Brown obligingly smeared across the line to be bowled for 34.

Having already bowled 41 overs accurate overs without a wicket, Min Patel finally got in on the act to be rewarded with four for 15 in 33 balls to polish off the Surrey innings on the stroke of the tea interval.

That ensured no overs were lost in the change over of innings and that Kent fancied their chances of pulling off an unlikely win.

SCORECARD

Surrey first innings

R S Clinton c Kemp b Cook 0
J N Batty c Walker b Patel 50
M R Ramprakash c O’Brien b Cook 97
G P Thorpe b Patel 95
A D Brown c O’Brien b Khan 107
R Clarke b Stevens 18
Azhar Mahmood lbw b Hall 41
I D K Salisbury c O’Brien b Patel 15
J Ormond not out 2
N D Doshi not out 0

Total 452 for eight after 117.4 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-4, 2-105, 3-238, 4-336, 5-382, 6-400, 7-449, 8-451.

Bowling: Khan 21-4-92-1, Cook 17-3-78-2, Hall 21.4-4-73-1, Kemp 17-0-60-0, Patel 30-6-96-3, Stevens 11-0-40-1, Key 1-0-5-0.

Kent first innings

D P Fulton c Brown b Mahmood 39
R W T Key b Doshi 65
M van Jaarsveld c Batty b Ormond 36
M J Walker c Doshi b Akram 173
D I Stevens lbw b Mahmood 0
J M Kemp b Mahmood 124
A J Hall c Batty b Doshi 24
N J O’Brien lbw b Salisbury 46
M M Patel st Batty b Doshi 27
S J Cook c Batty b Salisbury 13
A Khan not out 1
Extras 24

Total 572 all out after 135.5 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-58, 2-122, 3-201, 4-202, 5-435, 6-483, 7-495, 8-523, 9-571.

Bowling: Mohammad Akram 24-2-114-1, Ormond 28-1-109-1, Azhar Mahmood 24-2-104-3, Clarke 9-0-53-0, Doshi 30-3-111-3, Salisbury 14.5-0-71-2.

Surrey second innings

R S Clinton c Fulton b Khan 45
J N Batty c Walker b Hall 55
M R Ramprakash c O’Brien b Cook 62
G P Thorpe c Stevens b van Jaarsveld 47
A D Brown b Walker 34
R Clarke b Patel 7
Azhar Mahmood c Fulton b Patel 25
I D K Salisbury c van Jaarsveld b Patel 20
N D Doshi c Stevens b Hall 4
J Ormond not out 2
Mohammad Akram c van Jaarsveld b Patel 0
Extras 49

Total 350 all out after 119.2 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-107, 2-138, 3-239, 4-269, 5-292, 6-301, 7-331, 8-344, 9-349.

Bowling: Khan 20-2-86-1, Cook 15-3-37-1, Patel 47.2-8-110-4, Hall 15-5-22-2, Kemp 3-0-16-0, Walker 4-1-6-1- Stevens 13-0-25-0, van Jaarsveld 2-0-12-1.

Kent second innings

D P Fulton c Clinton b Salisbury 31
R W T Key lbw b Akram 47
M van Jaarsveld c Ramprakash b Doshi 25
M J Walker lbw b Akram 18
D I Stevens c Clinton b Doshi 4
J M Kemp not out 47
A J Hall c Brown b Azhar 17
N J O’Brien not out 23

Extras 20

Total 232 for six after 34.1 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-83, 2-87, 3-121, 4-126, 5-140, 6-175,

Bowling: Ormond 9-0-68-0, Azhar Mahmood 8.1-0-40-1, Doshi 7-0-58-2, Salisbury 4-0-25-1, Mohammad Akram 6-0-30-2.

Kent win by four wickets

Kent 21 points, Surrey 7.5 points