Davies, Dernbach deliver Surrey win

Surrey made it two wins from three Friends Life t20 South Group matches by beating Kent by 31 runs at Canterbury with a second brilliant bowling performance inside three days.

As they had in victory against Sussex at Hove on Friday night, Jade Dernbach and Azhar Mahmood led the way with the ball as Kent could score only 145 for 9 in reply to a Surrey total of 176 for 3, which was based around a fine 95 not out from Steven Davies.

At the halfway point Kent seemed on course at 87 for 2, with Sam Northeast and Darren Stevens rattling along in a third-wicket stand that was to bring 55 runs in seven overs. But when Stevens was lbw to Jon Lewis for 30 from just 17 balls the Kent innings fell away alarmingly, with seven wickets going down for 46 runs in eight overs.

Mahmood, playing against his former county, struck a vital blow midway through the collapse by bowling opener Northeast for 61 from 53 balls, an innings which contained two sixes and five fours.

He also had Sam Billings caught early on to finish with 2 for 22 from his four overs while Dernbach, who bowled James Tredwell and had Mitchell Claydon caught on the long-off boundary in the final over after having Rob Key caught at long-on for 17 in his first spell, ended up with 3 for 22.

Kent's batsmen had no answer to their accuracy and variety and Zander de Bruyn also chipped in with a useful 2 for 24, having Alex Blake caught on the deep midwicket rope and Matt Coles bowled first ball aiming a desperate swipe. Captain Gareth Batty snared Ben Harmison with his offspin, caught at long-on, and Kent have now lost their first two games in the group.

Davies batted throughout the Surrey innings, swinging offspinner Adam Riley for six as the 100 came up in the 13th over and also hitting 12 fours. He shared in stands of 66 with Jason Roy, who chipped Coles' first ball back to the bowler to fall for 16 in the eighth over, 47 with Ricky Ponting and then 57 with Glenn Maxwell.

Ponting, given a generous welcome by a 4,000-strong crowd, made 19 from 17 balls before skying an attempted big hit against Coles, who did superbly to run back and get under a swirling ball to complete a diving catch. The former Australia captain did hit one six out of the ground, high over the short boundary at long-leg from a slower ball by Coles which turned into an inviting waist-high full toss, but otherwise the Kent bowlers kept him quiet during his short innings.

Coles was the pick of the Kent attack, picking up 2 for 20 from a four-over spell in the middle of the innings and clearly happier not to have bowl in the Powerplay overs or at the death, as the England Lions paceman has generally been asked to do previously in domestic one-day cricket.

Maxwell injected some much-needed urgency into the Surrey batting effort when he arrived at the crease in the 14th over. Warming up with a straight four off Tredwell and then a pull for six off the England offspinner, the Australia allrounder later hit Claydon wide of long-on for a massive six before mishitting to extra cover in the last over for an 18-ball 32.

Mahmood swung the only ball he faced, from Claydon, for six over long-on to give Surrey 95 runs from the second half of their innings, and in the end their 20-over score proved to be more than enough.