Surrey rewrote history in the LV= Insurance County Championship on Wednesday, chasing down a target of 501 to beat Kent by five wickets at Canterbury
What threatened to be a pulsating final day instead turned into a one-sided procession as Dom Sibley and Ben Foakes batted mercilessly, eclipsing Surrey’s previous highest chase of 410, made at this venue in 2002, to finish on 501 for five.
Foakes made 124, while Sibley scored a patient century from 368 balls.
He eventually finished on 140 from 415 balls, seeing Surrey home with Jordan Clark after a magnificent feat of concentration and endurance.
Three days of violent momentum swings, luck, individual brilliance and human error had left the match almost perfectly poised at the start of day four, with Kent needing seven wickets and Surrey 238 runs.
It was the human factor that added the intrigue: without the dropped catches, the “poor” shots and the “bad” balls this would have been a torpid 700 v 700 bore draw.
The final day, however, offered almost none of the drama of the previous three.
Only once in the history of the county championship had a side chased over 500 to win: when Patsy Hendren hit an unbeaten 206 as Middlesex scored 502 to beat Notts by four wickets at Trent Bridge in 1925.
The reigning champions did it with a determination that belied everything that had gone before. Needing under three an over, they homed in on the target like an armour-plated milk float: slow but bombproof.
The morning session was almost ideal for Surrey. Foakes and Sibley saw off the new ball and scored predominantly in singles, at one point going ten overs without a boundary. Foakes survived an lbw appeal from Agar but they were otherwise unthreatened.
Sibley finally reached three figures when he drove Joey Evison for four. He just beat his partner to the landmark: Foakes took two from Jack Leaning in the next over to bring up a relatively quickfire hundred from 198 deliveries.
With the target now under a hundred, Surrey swapped the milk float for a Lamborghini. The 130th over went for 20 but Foakes then holed out to Joe Denly and was caught by Matt Quinn on the boundary, ending a partnership of 207.
It was 452 for four at tea, by which time Kent’s members had long been delivered from the hell of hope and the smattering of Surrey fans by the Old Dover Road entrance were savouring every minute.
Will Jacks was out for 19 caught by Agar off Arshdeep Singh but by then just 40 were needed. Clark sealed the win with a single off Denly and Surrey exited the field to a fully deserved ovation from home and away fans alike.
