From ball one there was only one team in this contest and it was not Surrey. As the Brown Caps' skipper Mark Ramprakash said after the match: "I think we came third tonight to be honest." Prior to this season Surrey had enjoyed something of a hold over Kent in one-day cricket, but this term the Spitfires have won all three List A games between the two sides. Furthermore, Kent have taken the honours on each of their four visits to the Brit Oval in all competitions. The toss was important and, crucially, Rob Key called correctly; but as the margin of victory indicated it was not the decisive factor.

As on previous occasions Martin van Jaarsveld proved to be the Brown Caps' bete noire. In partnership with Joe Denly, the 34-year-old South African took the visitors from 42-1 in the seventh over to 220-2 in the 30th; even then it needed a superb piece of fielding from James Benning at deep cover to draw a line under van Jaarsveld's 93 in 69 deliveries, which included eight fours and a six.

After Key had departed, edging Matt Nicholson to the right of first slip, van Jaarsveld announced himself by cutting Pedro Collins for four to bring up the fifty for Kent. Four overs later he despatched a full toss from the West Indian left-armer to the cover rope and pulled the very next delivery to backward square leg for four. Denly, meanwhile, was reeling off his trademark straight drive and cutting the ball with the assurance of a man who seems destined to play on a bigger stage.

In the fifteenth over, Denly brought up his half-century off 46 balls with a four angled down to third man off Alex Tudor. Five overs later, van Jaarsveld reached his fifty in just 38 deliveries. Surrey's spin duo, Matthew Spriegel and Usman Afzaal, then brought a modicum of control to proceedings, but the shackles, such as they existed, were thrown off when Ramprakash turned back to Nicholson; who would now appear to have played his last match given the impending arrival, in London, of Shoaib Akhtar.

Collins managed to get his fingertips to a chance at mid-off, but van Jaarsveld, unperturbed, proceeded to pick up the ill-fated Nicholson for six. In the next over, the 27th, Denly, not to be outdone, struck his first maximum when he launched Afzaal over long-off. In the 28th, Denly should have been caught at short extra cover off Nicholson, but in the next over he celebrated the reprieve by despatching Afzaal over his head for six.

Denly, on one knee, chopped Jade Dernbach on to his leg stump, though not before van Jaarsveld was beaten by Benning's direct hit, however there was not let up in the momentum thanks to Darren Stevens lifting Tudor down the ground for two sixes in the 35th over.

Dernbach accounted for Stevens and Ryan McLaren and Collins came back to uproot Matt Walker's middle stump, but a target of 315 was always going to be a challenge under lights. Surrey, however, did themselves no favours by slumping to 21-4 in the sixth over.

Before he could even trouble the scorers, Scott Newman lost his off stump to Robbie Joseph. Two overs later Benning edged the 26-year-old Antiguan to first slip. Stewart Walters handed Amjad Khan his first victim, when he was caught at second slip trying to work the ball through mid-on, and Khan struck again when Afzaal, driving with no discernable foot movement, gave van Jaarsveld his second catch at first slip.

Jonathan Batty then shared in partnerships of 52 in eight overs with Ramprakash and 65 in eleven overs with Spriegel, but when the Surrey stumper was caught at long-on off van Jaarsveld for 49 the home side were left needing a highly improbable 177 off 93 balls to win.

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