SURREY
FOLD TO STEVENS AND TREDWELL by Marcus Hook
Kent 266 & 230 v Surrey 127 & 104. Kent win by 265 runs.
By skittling out their opponents in less than
thirty overs, James Tredwell and Darren Stevens applied the
finishing touches to Surrey's most comprehensive championship
defeat, in terms of runs, for four years. Not even amongst them
could the Oval outfit muster as many runs as Rob Key managed in his
second innings, as he carried his bat to set-up Kent's third
championship victory of the summer.
Even allowing for the conditions in which Surrey's
second innings was conducted, their capitulation was abject. In
light that was barely passable and with the ball swinging lavishly,
for Stevens, whilst also gripping, for Tredwell, the visitors were
in danger of being dismissed in double figures for the first time in
eleven years.
Had it not been for Rory Hamilton-Brown, the only
Surrey batsman prepared to put a price on his wicket, the visitors
might have recorded their lowest total since July 1992, when they
were bowled out for 76, by Kent, at Guildford. As it was Surrey's
total of 104 was their lowest in the championship for ten years.
Faced with a target of 370 in five sessions, the
visitors lost Steven Davies almost immediately, when Darren Stevens
trimmed the bails of the former Worcestershire stumper, who was
playing a loose drive on the walk.
Just four deliveries were possible after lunch
before bad light held up proceedings for an hour and three quarters,
resulting in the loss of 15 overs and an early tea.
The manner in which Mark Ramprakash lost his off
stump to the thirteenth ball following the resumption suggested the
light played a large part. Two overs later, Zander de Bruyn wafted
at a delivery from Stevens and was caught behind without scoring.
Hamilton-Brown then became Stevens's tenth wicket
in the match when he slashed to gully, where Rob Key held on at the
third attempt. Two overs later, Jason Roy summed up Surrey's lack of
interest by slapping Stevens straight to mid-off and with James
Tredwell plucking out Zafar Ansari's middle stump the visitors were
68-6.
A six from Tom Maynard punctuated the collapse
before Gareth Batty deflected Tredwell into the waiting hands of Key
at leg slip, soon to be followed by Yasir Arafat, who was pinned on
the crease first ball.
With Tim Linley also flummoxed by a turning
delivery it was left to Jade Dernbach, who struck three boundaries
in seven balls before lofting his eighth to long-on, to give the
visitors' total the merest hint of respectability.
Earlier, Key converted the only fifty in the match
into his seventh hundred against Surrey. He gave just one chance,
when he was dropped at deep cover, on 71, by de Bruyn, who seemed to
have covered enough ground to take the catch over his left shoulder,
off Linley.
The third over of the day saw Linley's persistence
rewarded with his fiftieth championship wicket of the season, when
Adam Ball was caught behind off a thin edge. Matt Coles made a
breezy 13, which included a cover driven four and a straight six,
before lofting a high return catch to Batty.
Two overs later, Wahab Riaz picked out deep
mid-wicket, thus leaving it to Simon Cook - who batted at number
eleven in both innings, without being called upon to bowl - to hold
up an end while Key progressed to his second championship hundred of
the season, both of which have been at Surrey's expense.
The Kent captain reached the landmark with a push
into the off-side for two runs off Batty. It had taken him 266
minutes, 192 balls and, as if to underline its diligence, included
just five boundaries.
Batty picked up his third wicket of the morning
when Cook, sweeping, popped up a catch to Maynard, who did well to
get around to his right from slip.
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