Yesterday, Kent came close to inflicting a dramatic first defeat of the season on Surrey. Needing to record the highest score by a team batting second to win a one-day league match the Spitfires fell just seven runs short of their target.

A 162-run stand, off just 102 balls, between Ed Smith (99) and Matthew Walker (80 not out), almost carried the visitors past the previous best; set by the AMP Oval outfit, who made 314 for six to beat Nottinghamshire in 1993.

The Lions racked up 322 for seven. Their innings contained ten fours and included a sixth wicket stand of 115 in 77 deliveries between Mark Ramprakash and Azhar Mahmood. Ramprakash finished with an unbeaten 107 – his tenth century in domestic one-day cricket.

The home side raced to 78 in the eighth over, before Ian Ward was bowled by Peter Trego, who then had Alistair Brown chopping on for a twenty-four-ball 44.

Mark Ramprakash and Graham Thorpe put on 84 in seventeen overs before James Tredwell accounted for Thorpe, reverse sweeping, and Rikki Clarke, who was stumped, in the space of three balls.

Five overs later Adam Hollioake was run out after it appeared as though Ramprakash had gone the same way, backing up at the non-striker’s end, and at 199 for five Surrey looked for a moment as if they might fall short of a massive score.

In came Mahmood who proceeded to hit 70 in 41 deliveries, including four mighty sixes. Forty-eight came off the final three overs, which saw Azhar and Jonathan Batty getting out to catches on the off side to give Trego figures of four for 66.

With the most any side had previously amassed against Surrey in the competition being when Notts made 314 for seven at The Oval in 1994, Kent, if they did not already know it, faced an uphill task.

Azhar Mahmood, who could not be kept out of the action, had Mark Ealham caught behind off the last ball of the second over. Tim Murtagh’s first two overs saw the back of Peter Trego and Robert Key, both of whom were out trying to play across the line.

Ed Smith and Greg Blewett then added 66 in thirteen overs for the fourth wicket, but the Spitfires really took off when Matthew Walker joined the party in the 25th over.

The partnership between him and Smith, whose ninety-nine came off just 86 balls and included two on driven sixes, took Kent to the brink of victory. But, crucially, after Smith lost his off stump to Azhar in the 42nd over, Walker faced just six of the 21 balls remaining in the Kent innings.

Afterwards the Surrey manager Keith Medlycott said: “Nowadays sides don’t fear a big score on the board. They go out with slightly less pressure on them and more pressure on us. A lot of what we did we did well, but it was an exceptional innings from them. Smith and Walker played really really well. If a person plays exceptionally well they normally come away with the spoils, but it shows you how well we played that they didn’t.”

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