Surrey recover with style

County Championship D1, The Oval, day one (stumps): Surrey 306-3 v Kent

Full scorecard

Surrey recovered from a nightmare start to head towards a challenging total against Championship leaders Kent.

After opting to bat the home side lost openers Nadeem Shahid and Scott Newman with just one run on the scoreboard.

But Mark Ramprakash (123) and Jon Batty (120) fought back in an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 214 before bad light stopped play with Surrey 306-3.

In a move down the order, Batty came to the wicket after Rikki Clarke became Martin Saggers' second victim for 44.

Neither batsman dawdled over their first Championship centuries of the year, Ramprakash getting there in 185 balls and Batty following him in 145.

A great recovery by Surrey today; it was only a matter of time before Ramps got some big runs From Tony Neville Have your say on TMS

Kent were short of a spin option with Andrew Symonds on international duty and Min Patel injured.

Surrey, so far winless in the competition, may on Wednesday let Indian left-arm pace bowler Zaheer Khan loose on his Championship debut.

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Surrey: S A Newman, N Shahid, M R Ramprakash, R Clarke, J N Batty (Capt, Wkt), A D Brown, A J Hollioake, Azhar Mahmood, M P Bicknell, J Ormond, Z Khan.

Kent: D P Fulton (Capt), R W T Key, E T Smith, M J Walker, M A Carberry, M J Dennington, N J O'Brien (Wkt), R S Ferley, A Khan, M J Saggers, Mohammad Sami.