Kent put in a disciplined effort with the ball as they fought hard on the second day of their Championship game with Surrey at Guildford.

After being dismissed for 408 around an hour into the morning, Kent’s bowlers worked hard and showed great consistency throughout the day, with Surrey closing on 303-6, still trailing by 105 runs. The hosts were thankful for the batting efforts of Jason Roy, who made 84, and Gary Wilson, unbeaten on 80, as they helped their side recover after slipping to 105-5.

Young Charlie Hartley was the pick of the bowlers for Kent, taking 2-55 as part of an excellent team bowling effort, while Sam Billings made a Championship-best score of 82 not out in Kent’s first innings total.

With two days play still to come at Guildford, Kent will look to press home their advantage as much as possible as they look to pick up a third consecutive LV= County Championship victory in their push for promotion from Division Two.

The day started well for Kent as the overnight not-out pair of Billings and Mitch Claydon added 39 runs in the first half an hour of the morning session, before bringing up the 400 and Kent’s fifth and final bonus batting point with it.

Billings passed his previous Championship best score of 67 as the pair put on the sixth partnership of 50 or more in the Kent innings, before Claydon (35) was well caught in the deep by Matthew Dunn off the bowling of off-spinner Gareth Batty.

The last two men of Charlie Hartley and Adam Riley were then dismissed in consecutive balls by Stuart Meaker, both for ducks, leaving Kent 408 all out – a more than respectable total having been invited to bat after losing the toss yesterday, with wicket-keeper Billings’ excellent unbeaten 82 coming from 145 balls with 13 fours.

Rory Burns and Zafar Ansari opened the home side’s innings with just under an hour of the morning session remaining, but both found themselves dismissed before the break; Darren Stevens the man with the wickets.

Ansari (5) was the first to go, edging to Ben Harmison who took a good catch at first slip, before Burns (8) clipped the Kent all-rounder straight to Mitch Claydon on the deep square leg boundary.

Surrey reached lunch on 31-2, but saw themselves three down not long afterwards when Calum Haggett picked up his first wicket of the season on his first team return from injury. It was an impressive first scalp of the campaign too, as he trapped Sri Lanka international Tillakaratne Dilshan lbw for 5 with one which nipped back in a little.

Vikram Solanki made 25 before falling to Charlie Hartley as the young seamer, in his second First Class appearance, found the veteran’s edge; Adam Riley taking an excellent, one-handed catch in the slips.

When Steven Davies was run out by Sam Northeast for 33 not long afterwards, Surrey found themselves in real trouble at 105-5.

However, at the fall of that wicket midway through the afternoon, Jason Roy and Gary Wilson came together to drag their side back into contention, making the Kent attack toil somewhat as the conditions became more and more batting-friendly later in the day.

The sixth-wicket pair saw their side through to tea and continued to accumulate afterwards, passing 100 together in the highest partnership of the match so far, with Roy, celebrating his 24^th birthday today, making his fourth half-century of the Championship season; the ever-dangerous batsman bringing up the landmark from just 64 balls.

The partnership had reached 121, and Roy an excellent 84, before Hartley made the breakthrough, trapping him lbw to make the score 226-6 as the Kent bowlers continued to impress with their disciplined and consistent effort, despite not perhaps picking up the wickets their bowling deserved.

That would be the last wicket that Kent would pick up in the day as Wilson continued to help his side recover from their earlier perilous position, adding an unbeaten 77 for the seventh wicket with Gareth Batty before the close.

Wilson reached stumps on 80 and Batty on 24 with Surrey 303-6, still trailing Kent by 105 but having put on a more than decent recovery given their position midway through the afternoon.

Kent will be looking to polish the home side’s innings off early in the morning and look to build a further, potentially match-winning advantage. For now, the second day’s proceedings have left the game beautifully poised at its halfway stage.

 

Stumps, day two: Surrey vs. Kent, LV=County Championship Division Two, Woodbridge Road, Guildford, 20-23 July 2014:

Surrey 303-6 (Roy 84, Wilson 80 not out; Hartley 2-55) trail Kent 408 (Northeast 91, Billings 82 not out; Meaker 4-106) by 105 runs with 4 first-innings wicket remaining

 

Surrey: Burns, Ansari, Solanki, Dilshan, Davies, Roy, Wilson*†, Batty, Meaker, Dunn, Linley

Kent: Bell-Drummond, Key*, Harmison, Nash, Northeast, Stevens, Billings†, Haggett, Claydon, Hartley, Riley

Surrey won the toss and elected to bowl

Bonus points: Surrey 6, Kent 7

 

Full scorecard available here