Surrey out for the count

County Championship D1, Canterbury, day two (close): Kent 535 v Surrey 125 & 169-7 (f-o)

Full scorecard

Surrey's hopes of defending their championship crown were fading fast at Canterbury as Kent enforced the follow-on and moved in for the kill.

A heavy defeat is assured early on Saturday, as Surrey need another 241 runs to make Kent bat again with just three wickets in hand.

The visitors were shot down in under 29 overs, and in falling a whopping 410 runs short on first-innings scores they failed to gain a batting point.

Muttiah Muralitharan was barely needed, although he did claim two wickets, as Martin Saggers (4-40) and Amjad Khan (3-50) ran through a side ravaged by England call-ups.

Of the top five batsmen, only keeper Jonathan Batty reached double figures and his 28 was the top score of the innings.

Surrey fared barely better second time around as Muralitharan grabbed three wickets in 20 overs of mesmerising off-spin.

Ian Ward tried hard with a battling 53, but it was one-way traffic Kent's way and it looks as if Surrey have run out of steam at the business end of the season.

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Kent: D P Fulton (Capt), A G R Loudon, M A Carberry, A Symonds, M J Walker, M A Ealham, G O Jones (Wkt), M J Saggers, A Khan, M Muralitharan, R S Ferley.

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