Despite an excellent performance in the field early on day three, Kent’s batting let them down to present the opportunity for a Surrey victory on the final day at The Oval as twenty wickets fell.

But James Tredwell, taking the new ball, may give Kent fans faint hope taking the wicket of Zafar Ansari with the final ball of a remarkable days play as the hosts closed 4/1 – 121 shy of their target with Kent requiring nine more wickets.

Beginning the day 144/1, Surrey were bowled out by Kent before tea with Darren Stevens (4/76) and Matt Hunn (3/51) the chief destroyers, giving the visitors an unlikely twenty-five run lead into the second innings.

Kent second time around struggled to deal with the pace of Sam Curran and spin of Ansari and Gareth Batty, ending day three where they started in the field with their opponents one wicket down.

After yesterdays milestones and records for Kent today was no different as Darren Stevens struck early to pick up his 300^th first class wicket. He and Matt Coles combined twice inside the first half hour of play to give Kent the perfect start.

Stevens’ milestone wicket came in the opening over, his fourth ball, as Arun Harinath (76, 145/2) edged to Coles in the slips. Ansari (10, 171/3) soon fell the same way to join Harinath in the pavilion.

With Kent taking the honours early on, Surrey sought to bring parity to proceedings bringing up two-hundred and their first batting point but yesterday’s batting double act combined with the ball – Calum Haggett finding a thin edge and Jason Roy (17, 204/4) was out, caught behind by Sam Billings – Roy extremely unhappy with the decision.

Better was to come for Kent as the morning session came to a close – Matt Coles getting in on the act – Dominic Sibley, after earlier being dropped by Tredwell to a tough, low edge in the slips, was trapped LBW to a full length Coles delivery (11, 234/5).

The lunch-break only served to give the hosts a little respite – Stevens almost trapping Sangakkara LBW with the second ball after the break but didn’t have to wait long as Kent’s go-to man struck twice in quick succession.

Ben Foakes wandered across his stumps, missing a straight one, the ball striking his pads (5, 250/6) and James Burke edged to Billings (6, 264/7) – Burke, akin to Roy, clearly unhappy with the umpires decision.

Midway through the afternoon session Matt Hunn got in on the act taking the wicket of Surrey captain Gareth Batty who flailed wildly at a wide one outside off stump (3, 275/8), edging to Tredwell.

Hunn hadn’t finished there as his stock rose once more taking the prize wicket of Kumar Sangakkara – The Sri Lankan taking a big swing and missing the ball as it crashed into his stumps (110, 288/9).

The Curran Bros added valuable runs to Surrey’s total and, for them, crucially getting over three-hundred and an extra batting point as ‘Curran The Younger’ crashed three shots in quick succession to the boundary belying his number 11 tag.

Hunn ended Surrey’s resistance and secured what at the start of the day seemed an unlikely lead bagging his third wicket. Tom Curran caught by Joe Denly (4, 311ao) and securing a twenty-five run lead.

With the albeit unexpected but slender lead and forty-six overs to face, Kent made a torrid start to proceedings and it was the debutant Sam Curran who once again proved to be a menace.

In an opening over by the youngster causing Daniel Bell-Drummond problems, the opener succumbed with the final ball, out LBW (5, 5/1). Returning, it was Adam Ball (0) back in the hutch spooning a hook high to mid-wicket – Sibley taking the easiest of catches and Kent precariously 9/2.

Kent’s disastrous start and Curran’s great game continued as Joe Denly (10, 22/3) became Curran’s and Surrey’s third dismissal – The seventeen year-old taking his eighth match wicket and doing it single-handedly caught and bowled.

With Sam Curran rested from bowling duties Sam Northeast provided some rare cheer for the Kent dressing room and fans as he planted James Burke for an upper-cut for six to backward-Point and later in the same over through mid-wicket for four.

Having stabilised the innings the captain fell when looking well placed to go on for a good score. Reaching for an Ansari delivery, Northeast edged to Jason Roy at first slip (33, 54/4).

A change to the batting order for Kent with Billings coming in ahead of Stevens failed to reap rewards as five balls later the latter replaced the former at the crease – Billings offering a simple caught and bowled to Ansari (1, 56/5)

Ben Harmison and Stevens stood firm to keep Kent in the game, playing shots when the opportunity presented itself – Most notably Stevens effortlessly hitting Ansari for six over the bowlers head into the OCS stand (70/5).

Surrey earned more success at the expense of Harmison – He and Stevens faced sixteen dot-balls between them, with the former succumbing, edging a rising Batty delivery to ‘keeper Ben Foakes (24, 86/6).

Batty then struck twice in one over as Haggett edged to ‘keeper Foakes (3, 90/7) then Stevens was stumped brilliantly by the athletic Foakes, diving to his right to catch and quickly release the ball with Stevens out of his crease (14, 91/8)

Kent’s miserable innings soon subsided failing to reach one hundred. Tredwell went for a ball outside off-stump to only inside-edge it onto his own stumps (2, 99/9) and the final act saw Coles (2) sky a Batty delivery high with no distance and with Surrey fielders queuing to catch it, ‘keeper Foakes took responsibility (99ao)

With only two overs to face, Rory Burns survived Stevens’ opening over but at the Pavilion End where Tredwell took the new ball he got one through Ansari’s defences and Surrey at the close of play were left 4/1 – Ansari unusually out for the second time in a day (0).

Surrey batsman Arun Harinath said afterwards: “It’s been a bit of an up and down day, but also a fascinating one and we are now in a great position. It won’t be a straightforward chase, and James Tredwell will have a lot to say in how the game goes tomorrow.

“Batting was a little bit easier yesterday when the sun came out and I am happy to have scored 76 and pretty pleased with the way I have played since getting back into the team. Kumar Sangakkara’s knock was brilliant and it is phenomenal the way Sam Curran has bowled in this game. He’s definitely one for the future. But everyone did their job well with the ball today.”

 

Surrey: ZS Ansari, RJ Burns, A Harinath, KC Sangakkara, DP Sibley, JJ Roy, BT Foakes†, JE Burke, GJ Batty*, TK Curran, SM Curran

Kent: DJ Bell-Drummond, JL Denly, SA Northeast*, BW Harmison, DI Stevens, SW Billings†, AJ Ball, CJ Haggett, JC Tredwell, MT Coles, MD Hunn

 

Kent:

1^st Innings: 336 (Billings 99, Haggett 80, Northeast 45; S. Curran 5/101, T. Curran 3/75)

2^nd Innings: 99 (Northeast 33; Batty 4/12, S. Curran 3/19, Ansari 2/19)

 

Surrey:

1^st Innings: 311 (Sangakkara 110, Harinath 76; Stevens 4/76, Hunn 3/51)

2^nd Innings: 4/1 (Burns 4no; Tredwell 1/1)

 

Kent: 6pts

Surrey: 6pts