Kent maintained their position as joint leaders of the First Division Norwich Union League with an exciting two-wicket win over Surrey

Andy Jalil24-Jun-2001Kent maintained their position as joint leaders of the First Division Norwich Union League with an exciting two-wicket win over Surrey. Their captain Matthew Fleming, in a ninth wicket stand of 33, saw them home with 5.3 overs remaining after Surrey had appeared to regain control at the fall of the eighth wicket on 125.The start of the Kent innings was not unlike Surrey’s. They lost the first two wickets for 24 with James Hockley falling to the first ball which flew off the shoulder of the bat to be caught by the wicket-keeper in front of the stumps.The next two went in a space of three overs and Kent were 44 for four with Martin Bicknell, who bowled his nine overs in one stretch, taking two for 16.Playing in only his second Norwich Union League game this year, Alex Tudor was brought back for his last two overs and each of those gave him a wicket which enabled him to return his best limited-overs figures of the season with four for 36.With Kent six wickets down for 70 in the 21st over, it all seemed to be going Surrey’s way until the Papua New Guinea-born and Australia-raised Geraint Jones, making his league debut – he has played one Cricinfo Championship match – led an onslaught with eight boundaries which swung the balance away from Surrey.Jones’ 50 partnership with Fleming, of which the latter only contributed eight, came from 58 balls, as he went after the bowling, hitting Ian Salisbury for 22 in two overs. Having scored 39 at the rate of a run a ball, he finally edged behind from a forcing drive to the off to be seventh out for 124 in the 33rd over. Fleming, from then on, took charge of the innings.Earlier, in the Surrey innings, the Hollioake brothers provided excellent entertainment.More importantly, they staged the recovery that the Surrey innings so desperately needed with their first four batsmen being bundled out for only 23 within twelve overs after Surrey had decided bat first.After Mark Butcher was bowled in the fifth over, Kent’s bowlers claimed three wickets in three successive overs. The first two of those went on the total of 22 and a run later, in the 12th over, Alistair Brown was well held by Min Patel diving low at second slip.Adam and Ben Hollioake settled in quickly to steady the innings and ensured that the scoreboard kept moving at a reasonable pace. They played their shots freely with Adam finding perfect timing for his square cuts and used his feet well, against Patel in particular, while Ben’s runs came mainly from elegant drives.Soon after the fifty partnership had been reached, the senior Hollioake, on 20, escaped a stumping chance with Paul Nixon fumbling a delivery from Patel.The fifth-wicket stand of 85, from 122 balls, which brought some respectability to the total, ended with Mark Ealham, in his second spell, bowling Ben for 46. The batsman was attempting to pull a ball which didn’t rise quite as much as he had expected. He had hit seven boundaries from the 65 balls faced.Once again Surrey lost three wickets in three consecutive overs with Ben’s departure. Adam followed in the next over for 36 (63 balls) as he took a stride out of his crease for an attempted drive and missed and then in the 34th over Jonathan Batty was leg before to reduce Surrey to 115 for seven.Surrey lost their last two wickets off successive balls to be all out for 154 after the ninth wicket had boosted the total a little with a 30-run stand. Martin Bicknell remained not out with 19.The Kent bowling had been most commendable with Martin Saggers and Matthew Walker being the pick of the bowlers, each taking three for 21.