Symonds century fires Kent but Surrey take charge

Surrey's joy at bowling out Kent inside a day was tempered on two fronts, first by an injury to captain Adam Hollioake, who sat out the bulk of the afternoon after suffering a chipped finger on his left hand while fielding.

Although Hollioake was expected to return to action in this match it was not clear how much it would hamper his cricket. The second was the loss of opener Ian Ward in the 10 tense overs they had to negotiate to the close.

Kent also had a surprise sprung on them yesterday when they learned that they are to lose their overseas player Andrew Symonds for the climax of the County Championship, when they are most likely to need him.

The 27-year-old from Queensland has been called up for the Australia A tour to South Africa, which is scheduled to begin on 4 September – with the party due to meet up and fly out on 27 August.

Even if he flies directly to South Africa from England, he will miss the last three First Division matches – away to Somerset, home to Lancashire and away to Yorkshire – any or all of which could be critical for Kent, who were fourth before this match against the leaders.

Symonds underlined his value to Kent with his second hundred of the season as Surrey initially were made to toil on a good-looking batting track.

The Birmingham-born Symonds, a renowned big-hitter, demonstrated a degree of patience, picking the balls to punish with care, which accounted for his near three-hour stay. There was still plenty of entertainment from him, though, as he hammered 15 boundaries and lofted a couple of sixes to boot – one off the first ball he faced from James Ormond – off 110 balls.

Symonds had built on another great start by the Kent openers David Fulton and Robert Key, who had compiled their fifth century stand of the summer before being parted by off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq.

Fulton, the Kent captain, was first to go, driving straight to Rikki Clarke at mid-on; six balls later the Pakistani struck again and Key went lbw to one that kept a bit low.

This latter dismissal brought Symonds out to the fray and after Ed Smith was run out, the Australian and James Hockley added 130 runs to the Kent cause, the first time this season that a fourth-wicket partnership had been taken into three figures.

But with the departure of Symonds went the Kent resistance. The spin partnership of Saqlain and Salisbury became the dominant feature as they chipped away and eventually undermined the batting, even managing to deny Kent a fifth batting bonus point.

Both finished with a season's best, Saqlain returning 5 for 122 from 33.5 overs (including a spell of 4 for 3 in 18 balls to wrap everything up) his first five-wicket haul this summer, and Salisbury a commendable 4 for 59 from 17 overs.