Following two consecutive victories, Kent visited Surrey at the Oval in the Metro Bank One Day Cup with hopes still alive of qualifying for the knock-out stages.

Those ambitions were all but extinguished when they well beaten by their oldest rivals. Having recovered from illness, Matt Milnes returned to the Kent team along with overseas player Keith Dudgeon. Joey Evison and Matt Quinn missed out. Surrey were still without fourteen players to the Hundred, despite having three back, but their squad is so strong that they still had two England internationals in their side.

After winning the toss, Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond invited Surrey to bat first following a slight rain delay causing the loss of an over a side. Although Dom Sibley struggled to lay bat on ball in Milnes’ first over, he and Ryan Patel started to enjoy themselves and brought up their fifty partnership in the tenth over.

Patel offered Ekansh Singh a difficult caught and bowled chance that the bowler couldn’t hold before completing his half century in the next over off 54 balls. The openers’ hundred partnership came in the nineteenth over before Jaydn Denly made the breakthrough with his first delivery. Patel swung it to deep square leg and Singh took the catch just inside the rope.

Joined by Adam Thomas, Sibley continued on to complete his fifty from 70 deliveries and it was a surprise when he was out shortly afterwards, caught behind by Chris Benjamin off Matt Parkinson.

At 190 for 2 from 33 overs, Surrey looked on their way to a huge score. Grant Stewart then removed Rory Burns for 33 off 18 balls, and Thomas for 28 and Kent were back in the game. Singh had Ollie Sykes caught on the boundary before Milnes, the pick of Kent’s bowlers, sent back Tom Lawes, Ralphie Albert (caught brilliantly by Bell-Drummond), and Josh Blake.

Tommy Ealham, son and grandson of former Kent players Mark and Alan, holed out off Singh before Dudgeon bowled Dan Worrall. Surrey’s 286 appeared to be shy of par after their good start and the visitors will have gone into the break between innings full of confidence. Milnes finished with 3 for 32, Singh 2 for 52, and Stewart 2 for 64, while Denly, Dudgeon and Parkinson took one apiece.

That soon dissipated when Worrall started with three consecutive maidens. James Taylor, who had a short loan period with Kent earlier this season, opened at the other end but gave way to Lawes after four overs. In his first over he had the out of touch Ben Dawkins caught behind by Burns.

Bell-Drummond and Sam Northeast chipped away until the former chipped a catch to Sibley off Patel’s first over. Then Ealham came on and turned one past the leg stump and Burns stumped Northeast off a wide. Harry Finch and Benjamin both fell cheaply to Thomas. 

Denly and Singh joined forces and with the score on 89 for 5 at the half way stage, it was pretty much a lost cause. However, they batted with positivity and their partnership of 86 in fourteen overs would have given Kent a sniff if they had more wickets in hand. Denly completed his half century off fifty balls before both were out in consecutive overs, Denly for 51 and Singh 38.

Stewart went quickly, then Milnes fell for a duck. Dudgeon was last out when Worrall held a remarkable catch on the boundary to usurp Bell-Drummond’s claim for catch of the day as Kent were dismissed for 191. Lawes ended with 4 for 40, Ealham 3 for 37, and Thomas 2 for 35.

Kent’s Jaydn Denly said: “It is pretty disappointing because at halfway we felt we could chase that total down.

“We gave away a few with the bat and that is most disappointing because I think we did a good job with the ball after they had got such a great start and thought we had a sniff.”

Kent return to Beckenham on Sunday, unbeaten at home, with Leicestershire the visitors. 

Pictures supplied by Keith Gillard.