Ryan McLaren hit an unbeaten 18 before taking 4-37 Picture: Barry Goodwin

by Kevin Redsull

Kent secured first place in the Twenty20 Cup South Division, and with it a home tie against Durham in the quarter-finals, with a 16-run success over Surrey at Beckenham on Sunday.

Against a Surrey side who decided to rest several players including captain Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash, Kent were given a flying start by Joe Denly who hit 19 off 17 balls.

After skipper Rob Key had departed for 17, Martin van Jaarsveld (64) and Geraint Jones (47) kept up the momentum with a third-wicket stand of 96 in nine overs, Kent's second highest partnership in this season's Twenty20 campaign.

The Spitfires looked on course to reach a target approaching 200 but Surrey hit back through off-spinner Matthew Spriegel as Darren Stevens (7), Justin Kemp (1) and Azhar Mahmood (3) all departed quickly.

Kent eventually finished on 184-7 thanks to an unbeaten 18 off 10 balls by Ryan McLaren and the South African all-rounder then made his mark with the ball, taking 4-37 as the inexperienced Surrey batting line-up made a decent fist of their run chase.

McLaren opened his account by having Chris Jordan caught at mid-off and then Michael Brown skied an Azhar Mahmood slower ball to James Tredwell at mid-on.

Chris Murtagh was run out for 28 by van Jaarsveld’s direct hit and Grant Elliott was caught by a diving Justin Kemp at long-on off the bowling of Simon Cook.

With the asking rate up to 11 an over, the Surrey tail then perished in a desperate late quest for late runs as Kent wrapped up their seventh qualifying win in front of a crowd of nearly 6,000.