A fantastic game of cricket in front of a rammed Brit Oval sadly culminated in a loss for the Brown Caps and as such failure to qualify into the quarter finals of the Twenty20 Cup.

Surrey won the toss and elected to bat first and in typical form their opening pair, James Benning and Ali Brown, got the innings off at a rate of knots. Both players smeared the ball to the boundary, however Kent’s overseas player Morne Morkel soon had his revenge as Benning was caught behind for 21 with the score on 35.

Ali Brown went in the following over to Ryan McLaren and from there Surrey’s innings was hampered with wickets falling at regular intervals. Mark Ramprakash put on 33 whilst the top seven all made it into double figures, nevertheless the Brown Caps could not get a partnership going as they were bowled out for 145.

Kent were slow and methodical in their reply, ensuring they did not lose early wickets. They made it up to 26 before Matthew Nicholson bowled Joe Denley for 12 with a brilliant yorker.

Matt Walker continued on playing his game, striking the ball powerfully through the off-side. His and Kent’s scoring rate benefited from a Neil Saker over that went for 16, including a massive six straight over the sightscreen at the OCS End of the ground.

Always ahead of the rate, the Spitfires' scoring was curtailed with the introduction of Nayan Doshi and Chris Schofield, who picked up three wickets between them to even the contest up.

With wickets falling around him, Darren Stevens kept his head to guide Kent up past 100.

He played shots all round the ground and found a useful partner in McLaren as they all but won the contest for their side in the penultimate over. Requiring just two runs from the last six balls, it was left to the eventual man of the match, Stevens, to clip an attempted yorker through square leg for four.

Sadly for Surrey, the other results around the country did not go in their favour, which combined with tonight’s loss means that they will not qualify through to the next stage of the Twenty20 - the first time they have failed to do so since the competition’s inception.

In other news, Azhar Mahmood played his last Match for Surrey this evening. He joined the Club in 2002 and has been a fantastic player and team man over the course of his five years. All at Surrey County Cricket Club wish him all the very best.

Azhar spoke exclusively to Surrey TV about his time at the Club this afternoon. If you would like to see this interview, click here.

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