Kent closed in on victory on day three against Surrey with an excellent team bowling performance, reducing the visitors to 170-9 with a lead of just 20 runs.

Kent’s dominant performance with both bat and ball has put them into a position where they should be able to complete the victory without too much fuss on day four. Adam Riley was again among the wickets, picking up four, while Mitch Claydon also bowled excellently and took three – the pair bowling together for almost the entire final session unchanged.

The weather forecast is somewhat changeable, however, and a ninth wicket partnership between Stuart Meaker and Matt Dunn proved mightily frustrating for them. The pair only added 20 runs together, but took more than 15 overs to do so, including playing out the extra half hour. Even with this, the visitors will still surely need the rain to wash out the vast majority of the final day to stop Kent from picking up their first win of the season.

With Kent already having racked up a lead of 70 overnight, and Rob Key and Brendan Nash both having registered centuries on the second day, the Surrey attack was much improved come the third morning. Darren Stevens (2) and Ben Harmison (21) were removed in consecutive Matt Dunn overs early on, before Sam Billings and Adam Ball came together to put on 52 important runs.

With Billings and Ball at the crease, Kent also passed 400; picking up their maximum batting points. Having secured their full allocation of bowling points in removing Surrey for 285 in the first innings, this match represents the first time they have secured both full batting and bowling points in a game since their draw with Glamorgan at Canterbury in July 2012.

Billings had made 34 by the time he had his middle stump removed by Jade Dernbach; the previous delivery having rolled onto the stumps having taken an edge but failed to dislodge the bails.

Mitch Claydon made 7 from four balls before he was bowled by Aneesh Kapil, giving the former Worcestershire all-rounder his first wicket for Surrey, before Ball departed in the next over, edging Dernbach to Rory Burns behind the stumps for 14.

Last pair Adam Riley and Doug Bollinger added a useful 14 for the last wicket before Kapil had Riley caught by Dunn at fine leg, leaving Kent all out for 435; a first innings lead of exactly 150.

Surrey got their second innings underway following the lunch break, with Burns joined in the middle by Arun Harinath; captain Graeme Smith having been off the field for the majority of the morning to look after his daughter who was unwell.

The visitors’ second innings got off to a far-from-ideal start; Harinath had made 9 before he edged Bollinger to Ball at fourth slip, while Dominic Sibley went in the next over, lbw to Claydon without scoring leaving them 12-2.

Zafar Ansari was the next man at the crease alongside Burns, and the pair seemed satisfied to block their way through, making Burns’ decision to attempt to pull a short Darren Stevens delivery while on 18 all the more surprising. As it was, he skied it, with Daniel Bell-Drummond taking a simple catch.

Adam Riley, the pick of Kent’s bowlers in the first innings with 4-77, removed Ansari (9), as Sam Billings completed a stumping off a full delivery with an excellent piece of glovework; Surrey’s fourth wicket falling with just 47 on the board. Steve Davies and Smith, in at six, came together and added 30 to see their side through to tea.

The pair brought up their 50 partnership in the sixth over of the evening session, before Riley again made the breakthrough for Kent from the very next ball; Davies lbw for 40, and the visitors 97-5, still 53 behind Kent’s first innings total.

Jason Roy and Aneesh Kapil were the next two men to join their captain at the crease, and both made 10 before finding themselves back in the pavilion. Off the bowling of Riley, Roy was well caught by a diving Rob Key at short mid-on, before Kapil played on to his middle stump trying to leave one from Mitch Claydon.

Just as it was starting to look like Smith might be able to block out the day, he holed out to give Riley his fourth wicket; Adam Ball taking the catch in the outfield, at which point the scores were tied, effectively leaving Surrey 0-8.

Stuart Meaker and Matt Dunn then came together and played obdurately and solidly, blocking out both ends and denying the Kent bowlers the two wickets they craved. Mitch Claydon and Adam Riley took the attack to them unchanged for almost the entire final session, but the tail-enders provided stubborn resistance.

The pair were on the brink of seeing their side through when Claydon trapped Meaker lbw for 12 in the final over of the day.

Kent will need just the one wicket in the morning, before chasing down what should be not too many runs at all, weather allowing.

 

Stumps, day three: Kent vs. Surrey, LV= County Championship Division Two, The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Canterbury, 4-7 May 2014:

Surrey 170-9 (Davies 40, Riley 4-64, Claydon 3-42) and 285 (Roy 60, Riley 4-77) lead Kent 435 (Key 126, Nash 126, Dunn 3-104) by 20 runs with 1 wicket remaining

 

Kent: Northeast, Key*, Bell-Drummond, Nash, Harmison, Stevens, Billings†, Ball, Claydon, Bollinger, Riley.

Surrey: Smith: Burns, Smith*, Sibley, Ansari, Davies†, Roy, Harinath, Kapil, Meaker, Dunn, Dernbach.

Surrey won the toss and elected to bat.

Bonus points: Kent 8, Surrey 5

 

Full scorecard available here

 

Top and bottom pictures supplied by www.sarahansellphotography.com