Big Bob the Key to a Surrey win tomorrow

Kent captain Rob Key played almost a lone hand in chasing the 322 run target Surrey eventually set this morning, and he'll return to the Oval tomorrow morning the only man standing between us and a third Championship win of 2011...or a third defeat.

The next best score in the Kent innings is Martin van Jaarsveld's 35, and the pair of them threatened to forge a matchwinning partnership before Tim Linley came to the rescue and cut him off as it was looking dangerous. Linley was the only man who seemed to offer a constant threat throughout the day and ended with 4-42. Batty also chipped in with 3-66 in between some rather expensive spells.

It's also partially down to Linley that Surrey managed to claw themselves to 322, he and Chris Tremlett put on the third highest partnership of Surrey's second innings, 36 vital runs for the tenth wicket.

Of course it should never have been down to batsmen 10 and 11 to make it competitive, the top order have some questions to answer regarding their application in that second innings. Had just one of them gone on to 60 or 70 the game would've been beyond Kent, but they didn't and Key ensured they've been made to sweat on it.

It will be hard on Rob Key to end up on the losing side tomorrow, if indeed he does, the kind of mental strength he's shown at the top of the Kent order today is hugely impressive. Kent still require 52 runs, Surrey just two wickets - we are still just about favourites but we cannot afford any of the wastefulness we've shown at times earlier in this game.

A disappointing end, but still a nose ahead

A clutch of wickets towards the close of play took the shine off a decent day for Surrey, though they ended with a healthy lead of 275 and with two players at the crease still capable of adding another 40 runs or so.

Kent begun the day with captain Key and Sam Northeast at the crease and they progressed to 52 without loss before Stuart Meaker chipped in with his second wicket. Van Jaarsveld followed just an over later, Key and Stevens were also back in the dressing room soon after leaving Kent 87-6.

Surrey should've moved in for the kill at that moment with an eye on making Kent follow on, but not for the first time this season we let the opposition back into the game, with Geraint Jones and Alex Blake putting on 130 for the seventh wicket. However once Jones was dismissed by Batty for 61 the last three wickets fell for just 25 runs, a first innings lead of 137.

It then fell to Jason Roy and Rory Hamilton-Brown to begin building that into a lead of 400+ with plenty of time left in the game, but both fell, in Chris Adams' words in the members forum after the close of play to "pretty poor shots." Ramprakash and de Bruyn mounted a mini recovery but the latter couldn't repeat his first innings heroics and Ramprakash was also out soon after to leave Surrey 78-4. Maynard and Davies put on an aggressive 38 in eight overs but they too fell in quick succession, Davies to a terrible shot off Joe Denly, especially bearing in mind that the close of play was just 6 overs away. Denly then bagged his fifth wicket of the match getting Gareth Batty LBW for a duck, this game has seen the Kent opener shrink his bowling average from 54 to 45.

Zafar Ansari played a couple of nice strokes before close and Stuart Meaker stuck with him, Surrey were 138-7 at the end of play, a lead of 275. After the game Meaker claimed that a lead of over 300 was the first target, and there did appear to be some variable bounce so if Surrey can exploit that 300 should be plenty.

We have, without question, the firepower to skittle Kent tomorrow - the way we dealt with their top order today is evidence enough of that. We must be careful not to let them off the hook though if we get into a similar position, 300 is a good lead but low enough that one big partnership will get Kent most of the way. The bowlers must be right on the money from the word go, don't waste the new ball and keep the pressure up through the day.

De Bruyn the star man on day one

Zander de Bruyn's second Championship hundred of the season and two wickets late in the day for Meaker and Linley made it a pretty even day, and Surrey may feel they are in the ascendancy.

De Bruyn received only fleeting support from the rest of the top order, it was a timely return to form with the bat for Gareth Batty which enabled a score just shy of 400. They didn't hang about either, our runs were scored at 4.7 an over.

In a slightly surprising selection Adams elected to give Zafar Ansari his Championship debut ahead of Yasir Arafat, he will be disappointed to have been dismissed by Joe Denly's part time leg spin for just four, but his time will come. Denly and van Jaarsveld sharing five wickets between them might also hint at something in the pitch for the slow bowlers.

That half the wickets went to part time bowlers is disappointing (though just because they're part timers doesn't mean they bowled badly), the dangermen Robbie Joseph and Wahab Riaz took just two between them. Given the rate we scored at, it's obviously a decent pitch, you have to feel we should've got maximum batting points at least. So it was down to the bowlers to give us the upper hand and with 11 overs to play, Denly and the nightwatchman Joseph were sent back by Linley and Meaker - they now have 50 wickets between them this season.

There is still plenty of batting to come from Kent though, Key is still in, Northeast, Stevens and Jones can all score plenty and van Jaarsveld loves batting against us at the Oval. The forecast for tomorrow is for sunny intervals so the bowlers should look to exploit the cloud cover and get us a decent first innings lead.

What was I ever worried about?

Coming up against a side with the bowling quality of Hampshire, having bowled pretty averagely ourselves yesterday, I feared for our chances tonight. I need not have done.

Here's what I saw tonight: I saw a group of 11 players who wanted to win for each other. I saw Tom Maynard play an intelligent and powerful innings. I saw an exceptional bowling performance from Chris Tremlett, and I saw Zafar Ansari, all of 19 years old, hold his nerve to dismiss Shahid Afridi who was threatening to go berserk. In the end, I saw us beat the outstanding team in the group comfortably.

Hamilton-Brown won the toss and elected to bat, as expected with some fairly short straight boundaries. However the man most likely to exploit those short boundaries, Jason Roy, departed in the second over to a pretty poor shot, scooping the ball into Imran Tahir's hands at short fine leg. Steve Davies was then caught behind just as he looked like he was making himself comfortable, but there was no panic.

Hamilton-Brown hit Imran Tahir for six and was then caught trying for another - a mistake which Tom Maynard conspicuously did not make. After each of Maynard's two sixes he played a calm, simple shot for a single, he's a smart cookie. We accumulated runs at a good rate, but Hampshire were bowling well. As the innings threatened to peter out, Zafar Ansari cracked his first ball beautifully down the ground and finished the innings with a lofted four off Shahid Afridi.

A target of 152 against a deep-batting Hampshire side looked shaky, but Surrey started in the best possible fashion. Arafat had Adams caught behind with no runs on the board and Vince, McKenzie and Ervine all followed him back to the dressing room with the score still yet to pass 10. Dawson and Afridi threatened with a partnership of 51 in six overs before Ansari, in another nerveless display, got rid of the dangerman.

Thereafter it was a ruthless performance and in truth Hampshire did well to get within 40 runs. Chris Adams, speaking after the match said it was the "best performance" in his time as cricket manager, and I probably wouldn't argue too hard with that. I like this team when we're the underdogs, they seem to back themselves. Two games remain, a win against Kent next Thursday will more or less see us qualified. Well played tonight gentlemen, keep it up!

One down, three to go

It wasn't as comfortable as it might've looked at various points through the evening, but Surrey leave Lord's this evening with two points in the bag and a third successive win.

It's often said that in the Twenty20s in particular it's all about hitting your straps at the right time, and maybe we're doing just that. It wasn't a great performance by any stretch, Roy and Davies played very well to give us a great platform but it petered out ever so slightly towards the end of our innings.

The decision to open the bowling with de Bruyn was inspired as he picked up the wicket of Stirling, but the decision not to give him another over in the entire Middlesex innings was equally surprising. Nannes and Tremlett also got in on the act early doors to have Middlesex 24-3 and a million miles from the 173 they ended up with.

A stubborn 74 run partnership between Dexter and Dalrymple threatened to take the game away before Schofield had the former stumped. A combination of John Simpson and Sam Robson, and some pretty average bowling conspired to have Middlesex needing 11 from the final three balls but Meaker closed out the innings intelligently. All the while, in between bowling plenty of full tosses and some rank no-balls, Dirk Nannes picked up 5-40 to give him 15 wickets in the Twenty20s.

Essex's defeat to Hampshire means we go above them and until Sussex's game tonight ends we're in the qualification spots. We still have a game in hand on Somerset in second but equally we've got three tricky games coming up. I'm not going to study all the various computations of what could happen with all the five teams competing for the final three quarter final spots here, but two wins from the final three games might just be enough, but to be safe, let's go and win all three eh chaps?

Bowler-heavy squad for crucial London derby

Of the 14 men named for the short jaunt to North London, by my count, 11 would make passable bowling options as Chris Adams continues his all-rounder heavy selection policy.

This is partially due to a lack of available batting options through the squad, Ramprakash is apparently still not up to Twenty20 fitness-wise, Wilson shows no sign of recapturing his best form (and is away with Ireland anyway), there's been little word on Michael Brown for some time and Adams doesn't seem willing to gamble on a Lancefield or Burns from the Seconds.

So, the 14 man squad and my expected XI is as follows:

Steven Davies
Jason Roy
Rory Hamilton-Brown
Tom Maynard
Zander De Bruyn
Zafar Ansari
Chris Schofield
Yasir Arafat
Stuart Meaker
Dirk Nannes
Chris Tremlett

Bench: Spriegel, Batty, Linley

So possibly just the one change from the game at Whitgift, but it's not a simple one this. There are only five out-and-out bats in the side so they pick themselves - and it was crucial to see Davies and Hamilton-Brown get good runs. I still expect the Roy-Davies opening partnership to continue though even if it hasn't quite fired yet. Ansari has impressed with bat and ball so he deserves a continued place in the side - so that's the top six sorted.

I've not traditionally been a fan of Schofield in the Twenty20 side but he did bowl very well on a tiny ground on Monday, and Batty didn't bowl at all. It's perhaps harsh to drop either of them for the returning Arafat but Adams seems to have faith. Meaker really has to play after his excellent comeback performance from a poor first over at Whitgift, and although Nannes and Tremlett were a touch expensive against Sussex you can't ignore their pedigree.

Middlesex have been poor in the Twenty20s this season, they sit rock bottom having won only two of their 12 matches and were recently annihilated by Gloucestershire. However this is a game they'll be desperate to win to dent our hopes of progression, and there is some threatening talent lurking in their 14 man squad. There is no Dawid Malan and Gareth Berg is still out, but Finn, Murtagh and Mclaren is a good attack on paper and in the batting Stirling, Rogers and as the game at the Oval showed, Newman can still do damage.

After tonight's game we have three tough games against table-topping Hampshire, Kent and Sussex again, so given Middlesex's poor record in the T20 this year we really need to look at this as a must-win (is there anything else?). Two consecutive wins against Glamorgan and in the game on Monday should give plenty of confidence and key batsmen have hit some form. If the dodgy weather holds, this should be an excellent game.

Surrey scrap to beat Sussex

Whitgift School has a lovely cricket ground but I had my doubts about whether it was suitable for Twenty20 cricket. Those doubts remain, but Surrey collected a good win against Sussex there tonight.

All told 18 sixes were scored this evening, half of them by Sussex's opening pair in attempting to chase down Surrey's total of 203. At 109-0 in under ten overs it looked like they were well on target but in the end the pressure of runs on the board told, along with a bizarre decision to promote Wayne Parnell up the Sussex order.

Steven Davies scored a superb 99 not out in batting through the Surrey innings and was ably supported by a fifty from Hamilton-Brown and a quickfire 29 from Tom Maynard who was dropped twice in the field. In the innings break 203 looked a good score but not out of sight.

The game was being bullied out of our hands by Luke Wright with 72 from 31 balls before Chris Schofield pegged Sussex back with two wickets and Zafar Ansari bowled intelligently to restrict their batsman. Meaker too was excellent towards the end of the innings. Those three bowlers' economy rates of at or around seven an over would equate to something much lower at, say, the Oval. Gareth Batty didn't bowl a single ball and Hamilton-Brown reasoned that bowling off-spin with such small boundaries in a high pressure game is too tough. That doesn't quite sit right with me, they knew the size of the boundaries before the game and even with that in mind Batty is one of the most experienced hands in the side.

As ever I might not agree with the intricacies of the selection, but I can't argue with the result. We now sit a point behind Somerset, Sussex, Kent and Essex with a game in hand on Somerset and a marginally superior run rate to Kent and Essex, in short, there is still everything to play for. A win against Middlesex on Thursday would set us up nicely going in to the final three games.