Surrey won by five wickets

A NATIONAL League personal best innings of 82 by Surrey skipper Jonathan Batty helped inflict Kent’s seventh totesport League defeat of the season in Canterbury.

A 4,000-plus Festival Week crowd were left dumbfounded and silenced by another apathetic Spitfires display as the same group of players who lead the four-day championship continue to badly under perform in the short-form of the game.

Batty was eventually out chopping on against Simon Cook after hitting eight fours and a six in his 112-ball stay, but by then his side were only 32 from victory.

Rikki Clarke remained to steer the visitors home with an unbeaten 35 as the Lions won it courtesy of a Martin Saggers wide with 22 balls and five wickets to spare.

Yet at the start the Lions’ reply proved a fairly toothless affair as Andrew Hall bagged three for one in eight balls from the Nackington Road End.

James Benning cracked a dozen in as many balls before edging to slip, then Stewart Walters and Mark Ramprakash fell within the six balls of a double wicket maiden.

Waters pushed at one that just held its line to edge to the keeper then Ramprakash played around his front pad and went leg before for a fifth ball duck to make it 25 for three.

But that was where Kent again lost the plot and their way as Surrey’s fourth-wicket partners Jon Batty and Ali Brown took the game by the scruff of the neck with clinical efficiency.

Spitfire’s scheme to retain mid-innings control through a two-pronged spin attack failed miserably when off-spinner James Tredwell disappeared for 21 runs in two overs as the Lions pair added 117 in 20 overs.

At least left-armer Rob Ferley retained a measure of the control at the Pavilion End to finally break the stand when Brown chipped to Stevens at long-off to go for 65 from 55 balls.

To cause further confusion to another scrappy fielding performance Walker’s decision making and leadership were often interrupted by the prompts of David Fulton.

Once again Spitfires one-day batting seemed a tad below par on a dry, somewhat dusty pitch used earlier in the summer and against a Surrey attack bereft of overseas stars and the likes of Martin Bicknell and Jimmy Ormond.

Kent lost young England batsman Joe Denly to a second ball duck, but appeared to be re-grouping through Proteas Hall and Martin van Jaarsveld when a double switch in bowling led to a Kent collapse.

Van Jaarsveld (13) had his off stump trimmed when driving at Tim Murtagh then Hall, having hit 35 from 52 balls, heaved across a Neil Saker slower ball to lose his off stump.

Skipper Matt Walker hit a fluent 21 but he too perished when trying to improvise in finding a leading edge back to Saker, a London-born seamer with hair-style ala Kevin Pietersen.

Darren Stevens’ poor run of one-day form continued when he was bowled for 14 when playing back to an Ian Salisbury googlie then Fulton, restored to the side when Rob Key strained his groin in the pre-match warm-ups, was bowled round his legs when sweeping at Nayan Doshi.

Left-handers Tredwell and Niall O’Brien quietly re-grouped as Kent moved their score on from 120 to 140 exclusively in singles.

Once established, the pair went for their shots to add 57 in 10 overs before Tredwell holed out in the deep.

O’Brien paid the price for one sweep shot too many in picking out short fine leg to give Saker his best league figures of four for 43, but at least the Irishman had the satisfaction of top-scoring with 43 from 50-balls.

Cook and Martin Saggers fell in the final over to embellish Tim Murtagh’s figures to three for 28, but with 211 on the board Kent only had a glimmer of hope.