Kent were dominated by Surrey on day two of their Vitality County Championship clash at Canterbury on Saturday.
Replying to Kent’s 244 all out, opener Dom Sibley hit an unbeaten 87 as Surrey reached 185-1 at stumps.
Cameron Steel and Tom Lawes both took three wickets apiece earlier in the day as Surrey took the final six Kent wickets for just 62 runs. Although nightwatchman George Garrett outshone his batting partners with a career-best 48, any hopes that might look competitive vanished as Sibley and Rory Burns put on 147 for the opening wicket.
Garrett eventually got Burns for 69, but Sibley and Dan Lawrence batted through to stumps, at which point Surrey were just 59 behind.
Kent were 111-3 overnight and Kemar Roach had Jack Leaning plumb lbw to the third delivery of the morning, removing him for 30.
Garrett pulled Lawes for successive fours as he overtook his previous highest first-class score of 24, but the remaining specialist batters all squandered promising starts.
Joe Denly was bowled for 32 when he chased a wide one from Steel and played on, and Harry Finch hit two impressive boundaries as he steered Kent to 192-5 at lunch but he was caught for nine in the slips by Sibley off Jordan Clark soon after the resumption.
Garrett fell two short of his half-century when he edged Steel behind and Steel then had Matt Parkinson stumped by Ben Foakes for a duck. Kent’s last recognised batsman went when Foakes then sprang to his right to catch Joey Evison off Lawes for 30.
Jas Singh also made his highest first-class score, but when he was lbw to Lawes for 15 Kent were still six short of a batting point.
Surrey’s response rapidly began to look ominous. Kent created few chances and when Sibley nicked Arafat Bhuiyan he was put down by Finch.
Burns fell to Garrett when Zak Crawley took a smart slip catch, but it was an isolated moment of hope for the home fans during a protracted evening session.
Garrett said: “It was good to get out there and just score some runs. Obviously, last night as nightwatchman it’s never easy. Deebs unfortunately got out and I had to do the hard work then but I came this morning with a pretty clear head and backed my defence.
“I know I can bat, I worked hard on it over the winter with Walks and (Michael) Cohen in the indoor school and in Australia.
“It turned out to be a decent effort. Funnily enough, I was told by Lorne the scorer that I’m down in the handbook as a right-hander so that’s not great sign in terms of a reflection on my batting! It was nice to prove to everyone today that I’m a left-hander.”
