Surrey made a valiant effort to chase down the Kent Spitfires’ total this evening but in the fading light, 181 was too many for the Brown Caps.

Scott Newman lead the way at the top of the order for Surrey with a 31-ball 48 and the momentum was continued with the Surrey middle order all chipping in. However, the Spitfires picked up wickets at crucial moments to always keep the Brown Caps slightly behind the rate.

Jo Denly and Robert Key gave Kent an equally good start after Mark Ramprakash asked the Spitfires to bat first. Denly started with a streaky boundary through fine leg but never looked back as he cruised to his half century from only 33 balls – in the process taking his side to 80. When he was caught on the boundary, he had built a platform from which the visitors could launch a further assault.

Kent looked as though they would post a total in excess of 200 but Pedro Collins followed up a smart bit of fielding to run out Key to return with the ball and to leave the Spitfires 131 for four and get Surrey back in the game.

Chris Jordan came back and in the following over after Collins had dismissed danger man Justin Kemp, thought he had Darren Stevens trapped lbw, but umpire Graham Burgess turned the imploring appeal down. With this the pendulum swung back in Kent’s direction as Stevens smashed 31 from just 18 deliveries to help his side post a challenging 181 from 20 overs.

In reply Newman and James Benning got surrey off to a positive start but the latter went for 17 with the score 35. Ramprakash came to the crease in determined fashion and made his mark by launching Simon Cook into the Pavilion for an enormous six and with this Surrey looked in good shape.

Newman continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over and the pair took the score up to 75 when Surrey’s skipper was caught in the deep for 18. This typified the Brown Cap’s innings as wickets were lost at crucial moments.

Nevertheless, gutsy batting through the line up meant that the packed Brit Oval crowd always thought that Surrey were in with a chance. It was only when Jonathan Batty and Usman Afzaal went within eleven runs of each other that like the light, Surrey’s hopes started to fade.

However the determination of Jordan and Matthew Spriegel was shown when in the last over and requiring 25 runs for victory that the latter smashed a six off the first ball. A good remainder of the over from former Brown Cap, Azhar Mahmood, meant that Surrey finished 13 runs short but they showed a never give up attitude upon which they can build for the remainder of the tournament.

See highlights of tonight's match by clicking here.

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