IT was a tale of two sessions at The Oval as Kent and Surrey did battle on day one 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 75 overs Surrey had reached 276 for three having been one for two much earlier in the day.

Mohammad Sami and Martin Saggers removed the home openers Scott Newman (0) and Nadeem Shahid (1) within four overs of the start, but Mark Ramprakash and Rikki Clarke (44) started the fight back with a third wicket stand worth 91 in 27 overs.

Clarke 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 Jonathan Batty counter-attacked.

Ramprakash 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.

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.

It was Batty’s seventh century of his career, having been dropped on 87 by Michael Carberry at deep point.