Surrey v Kent

Surrey’s Mark Ramprakash will have to wait a while longer for his 100th first-class ton after falling for 48 on the opening day of Kent's LV Championship clash at The Brit Oval on Sunday.

Ramprakash has been waiting since May 3 to reach the three-figure milestone for the 100th time and was just two short of his 50 when he received a beauty from Kent Kolpak signing Ryan McLaren bowling from the Vauxhall End.

The ball lifted and left the ex-England right-hander and grazed the outside edge, but it still took a stunning one-glove catch by Geraint Jones diving way to his right to complete the dismissal.

It was the action highlight of an otherwise dour day as cricket came back down to earth after a frenetic fortnight of Twenty20 to the more sedate style of four-day cricket.

Surrey closed on 251-4 after 92 overs, a lethargic scoring rate of 2.7 an over, as Kent’s attack generally kept things tight on a good pitch.

On a cloudy morning in Kennington, Surrey elected to bat first after winning the toss and lost two wickets in the first session.

Kent’s first breakthrough of the day came in the sixth over when Robbie Joseph, who came in for the injured Simon Cook, got one to lift on left-hander Scott Newman (9) who, in trying to pull, got the ball high on his bat and scooped it to Rob Key at mid-on.

Matt Spriegel, having been dropped off Joseph at third slip by James Tredwell when on 12, failed to cash in on the chance when he played outside a Ryan McLaren in-swinger to lose his off stump and go for 17.

Just before lunch Ramprakash, on 23, was put down at backward point as he aimed a cut shot against Joseph. McLaren, diving full-length to his left got both hands to the stinging chance yet just failed to hold on, but soon after the break Kent and McLaren got their man.

That brought together Usman Afzaal and Jonathan Batty for a fourth wicket stand that added exactly 100 in 40 mind-numbing overs.

Batty needed 210 minutes to get to 50 and by stumps was still unbeaten on 70, having just lost Afzaal for 57 to the 21st delivery with the second new ball.

The left-hander had just driven a rasping cover drive to the ropes against Yasir Arafat to move to 57 but Arafat shrewdly bowled the next just a little wider and Afzaal nicked it into the gloves of Jones.

At the start of the day the visitors rested Azhar Mahmood against his former county, bringing in Martin Saggers who had been up for much of the night with his wife Samantha during the birth of their first daughter, Erin.

Kent team: Key, Denly, van Jaarsveld, Tredwell, Stevens, Kemp, Jones, Saggers, McLaren, Arafat, Joseph.

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