The visitors appeared to be in no mood to hang around yesterday. Having already been caught in traffic once this week, Kent seemed indifferent to the prospect of facing London’s Friday afternoon exodus as soon as Ed Giddins handed Surrey the early wickets of Fulton and Smith. Unfortunately, Kent did not count on their hosts making hard work of a modest target and rain delaying the inevitable until 5.13pm – by which time it was probably bumper to bumper over Shooter’s Hill.

The major contributions of the day were both made with alacrity, except on this occasion no red lights or bus lanes were involved. Min Patel made 37 in 33 balls, sweeping Saqlain Mushtaq for three fours in one over, and Amjad Khan struck an undefeated 42 in 47 deliveries, including a textbook straight drive off Martin Bicknell.

The loss of six wickets before lunch ended any hopes Kent had of staging an improbable comeback. Admittedly the home side enjoyed the better of the conditions again, but for a team supposedly batting to save the match the visitors showed an appalling lack of discipline.

David Fulton and Ed Smith, who appeared in no trouble the night before, were both gone before seven overs had been bowled in the day, Fulton to a superb catch at second gully and Smith lbw playing across a straight one.

Matthew Walker then presented a leading edge to mid-off and Andrew Symonds became the victim of some hesitant calling. Jimmy Ormond was not in the best position to remove the bails, but Symonds’s fate was decided when he lost his footing in mid-pitch after being sent back by Paul Nixon.

Not long afterwards Mark Ealham mis-timed a straight drive and lofted a simple catch to mid-on and Matthew Fleming went to a good piece of work by Ian Ward, diving forward at silly mid-off.

In the hour following lunch Patel hung his bat out to dry in the 58th over, Nixon’s vigil was ended by a outstanding return catch seven overs later and Nadeem Shahid claimed a thick edge at third slip to see the back of Saggers.

Ed Giddins, who was making his first appearance of the season in the championship, finished with three for 80, while the other wickets were shared around. Ian Salisbury was not called upon for the second time in five matches, but his reputation in the field – like those of his colleagues’ – is much healthier after this encounter.

Surrey took all of 22.3 overs to make the 61 runs needed for victory, in which time they lost Ian Ward, who was trying to make room. Even Walker’s friendly medium pace and Khan in leg-spin mode failed to persuade Batty and Ramprakash to up the tempo. But, with victory in sight, Jonathan Batty unwound and completed his side’s fourth championship win of the season with successive fours backward of square on the off-side.

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