Surrey close on crown

NCL1, Canterbury: Kent v Surrey (143-5 in 37.0 overs) beat Kent (142 all out in 31.4 overs) by five wickets

Full scorecard

Surrey are on the verge of being crowned National League Division One winners after beating Kent at Canterbury.

Surrey celebrate at the St Lawrence Ground

With just two matches remaining, Surrey can only be overtaken on run rate as they now hold an eight-point lead in the table.

But they did not have it all their own way against Kent despite having to chase a modest total of 143 for victory.

Although the Lions eventually reached their target with eight overs to spare, they begun shakily, losing three wickets for 48 runs.

Mark Ramprakash helped to settle Surrey and remained unbeaten with 42 from 95 balls, while Azhar Mahmood struck the winning boundary to send Kent to their first ever defeat in nine day-night matches.

Adam Hollioake returned his career best bowling figures - in either form of cricket - of six for 17 in a remarkable spell of 4.4 overs.

It was the best bowling figures ever against Kent in one-dayers and the third best all-time for Surrey in the limited overs game.

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Kent: M A Carberry, R W T Key, A Symonds, M J Walker D P Fulton (Capt), M A Ealham, G O Jones (Wkt), A Khan, J C Tredwell M J Saggers, M Muralitharan.

Surrey: I J Ward, A D Brown, M R Ramprakash, R Clarke A J Hollioake (Capt), Azhar Mahmood, J N Batty (Wkt) I D K Salisbury, J Ormond, N Shahid, F A Rose.