Kent ended the day as they started it – in the field – as the game looks now to be heading to the visitors at stumps at The County Ground, Beckenham.

Kent began the day requiring the two remaining Surrey wickets as they continued at 250/8 – 32 runs behind Kent’s first innings score and they started in fine style as birthday-boy Matt Coles, 25 today, took the wicket of Gareth Batty in the third over of the day – Batty trapped in front of his stumps LBW for 37 with Surrey on 256/9.

This gave Kent the chance to bowl at the injured no’11 Luke Fletcher and have a lead going into the second innings but Fletcher denied Kent with stroke-play befitting of a higher order batsman, eventually playing the ball off his pads for four from a Darren Stevens delivery to give the visitors an unexpected first innings lead. Fletcher’s innings was soon curtailed as Stevens followed Coles’ lead; trapping him LBW for 23 – Surrey going into the field with a lead of ten runs – Kent will have been disappointed to lose an hour of play and their lead early on day three.

Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly took to the crease to give Kent a solid platform to build a testing score with the former hitting a well-struck boundary off the second delivery of the innings and Kent will have been glad to see Curran open the bowling as Fletcher’s back injury left him unable to contribute with the ball.

In the third over of the day Denly scored three to avoid a pair whilst Bell-Drummond produced a solid front-foot drive for another boundary.

Unfortunately lost the wicket of Bell-Drummond before lunch as he fell LBW to Dunn for 9 with the score 16/1 bringing Rob Key to the crease – Kent saw out the rest of the session to lunch 35/1 with Denly (8no) and Key (18no).

Denly, who scored slowly before lunch, found some impetuous in the opening over after the break with a delightful four on the off-side followed by another on the leg-side and Key soon added two to bring up Kent’s 50.

Disaster soon struck for Key as firstly a shot for two on the off-side broke his bat and the following delivery brought no luck with the replacement as he edged to wicket-keeper Gary Wilson, out for 26, Kent 56/2

New batsman Sam Northeast soon profited from good batting as, after bowler Curran and teammate Wilson claimed a caught behind down leg-side, he scored two on the off-side with the following ball then a four and three more through the covers moving the scoreboard along nicely

Northeast was soon back in the pavilion though as, after Denly hit a six over bowler Ansari’s head, the Kent Captain was caught at Slip by Davies (26). Kent were now 97/3 – A lead of 87.

Fabian Cowdrey got of the mark with a boundary which also brought up Kent’s one hundred, following this up with a shot towards the pavilion that was fielded just shy of the rope but he managed to run four anyway.

Early in the afternoon the game then turned dramatically and in the favour of the visitors as they took a stranglehold on proceedings as Ansari proved chief destroyer. Cowdrey fancied his chances against Ansari and danced down the wicket but in missing the ball, Wilson sharply took off the bails with Cowdrey unable to get back – Cowdrey out for 9 with Kent 113/4 but worse was to come as two over’s later Stevens edged Ansari to Roy at Slip for 1 (115/5) and the following ball Ansari saw himself earn his third wicket in four balls as Sam Billings went for a golden duck caught by Sibley – Kent were now 115/6 with a lead of only 105 – Calum Haggett came in and survived the hat-trick ball.

Denly and Haggett did well to consolidate and give the hosts a springboard to increase their sides lead with Denly soon earning his half-century and despite Burns dropping a chance to catch Haggett off Ansari, Kent survived the rest of the afternoon session going in at tea 146/6 – A lead of 136 – with Denly 59no and Haggett 8no.

Tight Surrey bowling gave Denly nor Haggett many opportunities to score and Gareth Batty soon got his reward as he bowled Denly through bat and pad – Denly out for 66 and Kent 159/7 – The game was slipping away from the hosts.

In came birthday-boy Coles who soon treated himself to a well-struck six off Ansari followed by a reverse-sweep for four but in the following over Haggett lost his wicket, once again Batty the beneficiary as Kent’s all-rounder was caught by Sibley at mid-wicket for 24 – Kent 188/8 (lead 178). Batty got his third wicket as Coles brought up Kent’s two-hundred taking the spinner for two boundaries either side of an unsuccessful LBW shout followed by a Davies catch at Point – Coles out for 29, Kent 201/9.

Four balls later the Kent innings was ended as Dunn had Ivan Thomas caught behind for a duck – Thomas flailing at a ball outside off-stump and only getting an edge to it.

Kent all out for 204 giving them a lead of 194 and Surrey a target of 195 with a full day left to play…

So Kent took to the field for the second time in the day with Matt Coles taking the new ball hoping the remaining eleven over’s of the day proved fruitful and in Coles’ last ball of the opening over Burns elected to not play at a ball but despite calls for LBW the umpire gave not out – The ball seemed too high to be given out.

Burns looked positive quickly cumulating runs with, in particular, two successive fours off Riley’s first over.

As the day came to a close, Kent had something to cheer as the ever reliable Darren Stevens weaved his magic with the ball trapping Ansari LBW for 10 – Surrey 41/1. However with only a few balls remaining in the days play, night-watchman Dunn saw out the rest of the day unscathed.

Surrey closed the day 44/1, needing 151 more runs to win on the final day with the hosts requiring 9 wickets for an unlikely win. The weather looks set fair for day four thus a result can be expected.

 

Close of play day three: Kent vs Surrey, LV= County Championship Division Two, The County Ground, Beckenham, 24-27 May 2015:

Kent 282 all out (Key 89, Northeast 73; Curran 3/64, Dunn 3/65) & 204 all out (Denly 66; Ansari 4/58), Surrey 292 all out (Davies 45; Stevens 4/48, Coles 4/81) & 44/1. 

Kent 5 points, Surrey 5 points. 

Kent: Bell-Drummond, Denly, Key, Northeast*, Cowdrey, Stevens, Billings†, Haggett, Coles, Riley, Thomas.

Surrey side: Burns, Ansari, Sangakkara, Sibley, Davies, Roy, Wilson, Batty, Curran, Dunn, Fletcher.

Kent won the toss and elected to bat.

Pictures supplied by David Cross.