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Surrey maintain top spot in the South

Surrey went clear at the top of the Twenty20 South Division table with a comfortable six-wicket win over Kent with 14 balls to spare at Beckenham.

Having been set a modest target of 132, Surrey began well by bringing up the 50 for the loss of Alistair Brown's wicket.

Brown was bowled, playing on to Morne Morkel for 23.

But then they lost three quick wickets. James Benning (12) was run out after a mix-up with Mark Ramprakash and 13 runs later the Brown Caps were 69 for four in the 14th over, with Ramprakash and Mark Butcher dismissed off successive balls from Simon Cook.

Ramprakash (26) mistimed a slower ball to be caught at mid-wicket and Butcher (2) spliced his shot to mid-wicket. It was an excellent, well-controlled over from Cook who eventually finished with two for 28.

But the Spitfires could not break the fifth-wicket partnership between Azhar Mahmood, whose 39 came from only 19 balls and Rikki Clarke who scored 22 from 13.

They were both severe on Neil Dexter in particular whose two overs went for 27 with Azhar hitting him for six over extra cover for the second six of the match.

Kent had earlier been put in under cloudy skies but were unable to make much of a recovery after losing their first two wickets from successive balls with the total of 16.

Matthew Nicholson, in his second over, had Martin van Jaarsveld caught at mid-off as he top-edged in working the ball to leg and Joe Denly had his leg stump uprooted by a yorker.

Matthew Walker (12) opened his account with a square drive to the point boundary off Jade Dernbach's first over.

But in his next over, Walker was bowled as he played on attempting to steer the ball to leg.

The Spitfires lost two wickets for one run to be reduced to 41 for four, with Geraint Jones caught off gloves for a duck to give Rikki Clarke his only wicket.

Darren Stevens, the Kent top scorer with 27 from 28 balls, picked up gradually and along the way he hit Dernbach for two consecutive boundaries to bring up the fifty.

But he lost partners at the other end with Neil Dexter (14) run out from a direct hit from point by Butcher and James Treadwell (1) was stumped off Chris Schofield as the Spitfires plummeted to 76 for six.

Schofield claimed the next two wickets to finish with figures of three for 18 when he had Stevens caught at long-on from a lofted drive and in the 17th over he bowled Yasir Arafat for seven as the batsman came down the pitch.

Some lusty hitting by Cook, unbeaten on 25 from just 13 balls, boosted the Spitfires total to 131 for eight which included the only six of the innings off the last ball.

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