KENT V SURREY at Canterbury (LVCC1), 8-11 AUGUST 2007

With the newly crowned Twenty20 Cup champions sitting fourteen points ahead of Surrey, and with four out of their last six LVCC fixtures being at the St.Lawrence Ground its that home advantage we can expect to see coming into play over the next four days.

Chances are the groundsman at Canterbury has been under orders to prepare a pitch that would last seven days rather than four. Harbhajan Singh can therefore anticipate another heavy workload. Against Worcestershire at Guildford he sent down 63 overs, which was the most delivered by a Surrey bowler since Harbhajan sent down 72.1 at Bristol in July 2005.

In the sights of the Indian off-spinner will be four batsmen who have already made 500 championship runs this term at an average over forty - Denly, Key, Stevens and van Jaarsveld. 21-year-old Joe Denly leads the way with 699 runs at an average of 53.76, including centuries at home to Hampshire in May and against Yorkshire at Scarborough two weeks ago. Martin van Jaarsveld has three hundreds under his belt, the best of which was his 166 against Surrey at Whitgift School.

Since making 199 against the Oval outfit in 2004 and centuries in both innings against the Brown Caps at Tunbridge Wells a year later, the Kent skipper, Rob Key, has only made 118 in three innings against them; which suggests he is due another big score against Mark Butcher's men. With Harbhajan likely to be Kent's main threat, the home side would do well to keep the faith with Matt Walker. Walker is averaging just 34.88 in this season's County Championship, but his record against Surrey shows that he has not been dismissed by a Brown Caps spinner in first-class cricket since 2003.

The hop county's bowling attack is strengthened with the signing of Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga. The 23-year-old quick joins a well drilled outfit which has been led by Ryan McLaren (31 wickets at 24.58 runs apiece) and Yasir Arafat (26 @ 30.38) this summer. With Darren Stevens and Simon Cook chipping in at regular intervals, Kent have only been held back by the lack of a wicket-taking spinner.  

Mark Ramprakash has made 9,980 first-class runs for Surrey, while Scott Newman's f-c run tally stands at 4,993. Jonathan Batty has 398 catches in f-c cricket. Kent's Simon Cook is set to make his 100th f-c appearance. Yasir Arafat has 491 first-class wickets.

Rikki Clarke is struggling with the same cold he battled with against Worcestershire. James Benning therefore comes into the reckoning, while Alistair Brown has been included in Surrey's 13-man squad, probably as cover. Mo Akram and Jimmy Ormond are also named in the squad, but only one of these is thought likely to feature following Chris Jordan's impressive first team debut against Middlesex in the Pro40 League. 

As I've already hinted, Kent have more to lose by preparing a result pitch. So, I will be amazed if this match finishes in anything but a high-scoring draw.

J Denly, R Key (capt), M van Jaarsveld, D Stevens, M Walker, N Dexter, G Jones (wk), J Tredwell, S Cook, R McLaren and L Malinga.

Nigel Cowley and Richard Illingworth.

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