WHILE Nasser Hussain mulls over the longevity of his England career, so Kent’s Rob Key continues to jostle into pole position as the heir apparent.

With four centuries to his name already, two of them against the touring New Zealanders, Key added to his list of impressive scores with an unbeaten 78 as Kent bid to avoid the follow-on against Surrey.

Needing 330 to avoid batting again, the visitors went into second day stumps on 181 for five with Key leading from the front once again.

Responding to Surrey’s 479 all out, Kent played well against most things that Surrey could throw at them, other than Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood that is.

On a benign Oval pitch, the right-armer from Islamabad produced three stunning deliveries to account for David Fulton, Ed Smith and Matt Walker, all when seemingly well set. Yet Key remained resolute.

After an opening stand of 52, Fulton left controversially for 30, adjudged caught at the wicket though the Kent skipper clearly left centre stage aggrieved at the decision.

Smith had no such qualms, he nicked a genuine leg cutter to go for 25 with the visitors' score on 82.

Walker, who averages 65 at the Kennington Test venue, also moved smoothly to 20 until Mahmood came up with a peach to give Jon batty his third catch of the innings.

The ball swung in to left-handed Walker then seamed away off the pitch to feather the outside edge and make it 142 for three.

By then Key had already reached a 140-ball half-century and had his mind set on three figures as the daylight faded in time with the Surrey attack.

But Michael Carberry (17) came in to dominate the strike late in the day to deny Key his three-figures.

Rikki Clarke had one huge appeal for caught behind turned down, but Mahmood returned for a third spell to have Carberry caught behind in the penultimate over after a lazy, leg-side flick to give Mahmood four for 56.

Night watchman Martin Saggers followed in similar fashion in the day’s final over, giving Clarke his first wicket and Batty his fifth catch of the innings.

So Key was made to wait for his century and Kent, who still trail by 298, go into day three needing a further 149 to save the follow on.

Earlier, Surrey had looked set fair for a score of 550-plus as they went into lunch on 440 for six, but the introduction of Rob Ferley on the resumption led to a surprise collapse to 479.

Ferley mopped up Mahmood (27), Martin Bicknell (6) and Ali Brown (79) in a post-lunch stint of three for 18 in 23 balls.

Martin Saggers finished it off by having Jimmy Ormond caught behind to finish with three for 111, Ferley posted three for 107 while Mohammad Sami and Amjad Khan bagged two apiece.

Sami’s brace included the significant scalp of Mark Ramprakash, bowled off an under edge when attempting to pull for 157 – the 20th 150-plus score of his first-class career.