County Championship: Kent bowlers challenge Surrey

Kent fast bowler Matt Coles has now taken 28 County Championship wickets this season

Kent's bowling attack stuck to their task on day two at Beckenham, as no Surrey batsman made it past fifty

Surrey lost regular wickets throughout the day, Matt Coles (3-58) and Darren Stevens (3-47) proving impressive.

Dominic Sibley (41), Steven Davies (45) and Gary Wilson (42) all made impressions, but the visitors struggled to sustain any partnerships.

Gareth Batty reached 36 not out before bad light forced an early close with the visitors' score on 250-8.

In the face of the hosts' accurate attack Surrey's largest partnership was of 76 runs between Sibley and Davies for the fifth wicket, but Wilson and Batty's lower order contributions left the two sides close to parity at stumps.

Bad light curtailed an even day's play to leave the visitors just 32 runs behind with two wickets in hand.

Kent bowler Matt Coles:

"We are still in quite a nice position, even though we didn't bat very well yesterday after Rob Key and Sam Northeast had got us to 182 for two.

"We need to get their last two wickets quickly in the morning, but we had a good day with the ball today and with a few decisions going our way it could have been even better.

"We have been bowling well as a side in recent weeks and it is good to keep that going. We will need to bat well in the third innings and hopefully we can set them a big score to make on the last day."

Surrey wicketkeeper Gary Wilson:

"It was pretty attritional at times today, but I think honours are fairly even going into the third day. It's the type of pitch on which you never really feel you are in, and the new ball has been important throughout the game.

"It was really important that we got up near their score and hopefully we might even get a small lead tomorrow. Three or four of us have got to 40-odd without going on, and that's the sort of pitch it is."