Kent face Surrey in vital LV= County Championship Match

Kent face Surrey in a pivotal LV= County Championship match with both team’s fate for the season hinging on the result. Any chance of catching runaway leaders Worcestershire and passing second placed Hampshire in the Division Two Championship will be greatly enhanced by victory by either side.

Kent enter the match on the back of two strong wins in their latest outings, the most recent being an away victory over bottom placed Leicestershire, by six wickets, at Grace Road. Previous to this they dispatched Derbyshire in an emphatic display, winning by ten wickets in Canterbury.

Surrey have similarly been in winning form lately, having moved up to third on the table with 155 points, having played 12, 40 points ahead of Kent, who have played two less matches. They have greatly improved from their early season form, which included an eight wicket loss to Kent at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence. That victory was set up by an impressive first innings total of 435, including both Rob Key and Brendan Nash scoring 126, and then a solid bowling performance. They dismissed Surrey for 285 in their first innings and then 203 in the second, with a stand out performance by off spinner Adam Riley, taking nine wickets in the match. They comfortable knocked off the 54 required for victory.

Head Coach Jimmy Adams has made one change to the 12 man squad that gained the County victory at Grace Rd, bringing in Calm Haggett in place of Adam Ball. ‘It was a good performance against Leicestershire and nice to string two wins together. To be serious contenders we have to maintain this sort of form,’ he commented. ‘Surrey have been playing well so this is a good challenge for the lads.’

Kent have played Surrey at Woodbridge Road, Guildford on four previous occasions; 2005, 1992, 1990, 1988. The latest two fixtures resulted in good wins, 2005 by four wickets, with current assistant coach contributing 173 in Kent’s first innings total of 572, In the 1992 fixture Kent were forced to follow on, 184 runs short of Surrey’s first innings. They managed to eek out an unlikely win after scoring 332 in their second innings (Carl Hooper 132) and then rolling Surrey for just 76, winning by 72 runs. Current bowling coach Mark Ealham recording figures of 2 wickets for 11 runs and Richard Ellison, 2 – 9. The other two matches have been drawn. For a fuller history of these four fixtures click here.

Play is due to begin at Woodbridge Rd, Guildford on Sunday 20^hJuly 2014 at 11am.

Kent (from):

· Rob Key (c)

· Daniel Bell-Drummond

· Sam Billings (w)

· Mitch Claydon

· Calum Haggett

· Charlie Hartley

· Ben Harmison

· Brendan Nash

· Sam Northeast

· Imran Qayyum

· Adam Riley

· Darren Stevens

Injury Update:

Mark Davies, David Griffiths, Doug Bollinger and Ivan Thomas unavailable due to injuries.