Surrey cut down to size

Surrey 258 Kent 43

Surrey's rather forlorn first innings echoed what had been done to the St Lawrence Ground's oldest inhabitant – the lime tree, which at 180 years old pre-dates the first match to be played on the ground.

Earlier this month Kent called in a tree surgeon to pollard the lime, which sits inside the boundary. Some 15 feet was lopped off, the hope being that it should prolong the ailing landmark's life by a further 10 years.

Having completed that particular job Kent set about cutting ailing champions Surrey down to size yesterday. Again it was the commendable Martin Saggers who got the sawdust flying as he chopped through the top-order with ruthless efficiency.

The young left-handed opener Michael Carberry drove carelessly at a ball that left him late to give David Fulton the first of his three catches. In the same over Nadeem Shahid got a toe end on to a fuller length delivery and saw his leg stump knocked back.

The Surrey captain Adam Hollioake did not last long, he too was done for careless driving to complete a lethal little spell by Saggers of three wickets in a dozen balls. When Alistair Brown fell leg before to Matthew Fleming in the next over, it looked like curtains for the reigning champions.

Ian Ward hung in there and he and Ben Hollioake added 40-odd useful runs but eventually they went the way of the rest. Thankfully that brought out Surrey all-rounder Martin Bicknell. He and wicketkeeper Jon Batty emulated the lime tree and took root through lunch and deep into the afternoon as they cut and carved an invaluable partnership of 64 runs.

On the way Bicknell passed 500 runs for the season, which, when taken with the 56 wickets he has to his name, means that for the second season running Surrey's evergreen has completed the modern all-rounders' double.

Thanks to Bicknell's fourth half-century of the summer and Ian Salisbury's chunky innings Surrey gleaned two batting bonus points. But they found the Kent openers rather more difficult to knock over.

Fulton, who is in the form of his life, even added a symmetrical touch to the proceedings when he clipped an Ed Giddins delivery against the tree, for the second of his two boundaries.