IT was a tale of two sessions at The Oval as Kent and Surrey did battle on the opening day of their Frizzell Championship match at the Kennington Test venue.

With construction work going on at The Vauxhall End of the ground as part of a £23m re-fit, it was Surrey who re-built their innings after a decidedly shaky start.

After four overs of the game the hosts had tumbled to one for two, but come the close they had risen from the ashes to reach 306 for three when bad light stopped play at 5.50pm.

After losing the toss and being invited to bowl, Kent’s new ball pair of Mohammad Sami and Martin Saggers removed home openers Scott Newman (0) and Nadeem Shahid (1) with just a single on the board.

But Mark Ramprakash and Rikki Clarke (44) started the fight back with a third wicket stand worth 91 in 27 overs.

Clarke, dropped on 20 to a tough return catch to Amjad Khan, became Saggers’ second victim of the day just before lunch as Surrey went in on 99 for three.

Yet the second session belonged entirely to the hosts as Ramprakash and his skipper Jon Batty counter-attacked.

Ramprakash hit his first championship ton of the summer from 185-balls and with 15 fours and a six. It was his 68th first-class hundred and his fifth against Kent. He finished unbeaten on 123.

At the other end Batty also reached three figures just after tea with a four through mid-wicket off Amjad Khan. It was his 20th boundary of the innings from his 145th ball and by the close he had reached 120 not out.

Having been dropped on 87 by Michael Carberry at the deep point boundary, Batty went on to post the seventh century of his career.

The third wicket partners added an unbroken 162 before being offered bad light after 85 overs of the day and 19 short of the scheduled close.