County cricket: Surrey smash records and look invincible in Championship

Surrey stay top of Division One after their extraordinary but curiously inevitable hunting down of 501 at Canterbury, one of the 10 highest fourth-innings chases in first-class cricket. It was also an example of how different batting styles can complement each other, Kent’s bowlers presented with differing tactics and attitudes that ultimately proved interchangeable in the pursuit.

Jamie Smith had a lot of fun making 114 off 77 deliveries, an innings that acted like one of those camera lenses that bring a distant, barely visible object into focus. Ben Foakes bumped it further forward with a measured 124 off 211 balls, the Kent team wilting under relentless pressure. Meanwhile, Dominic Sibley was batting like it’s 1899, setting a record or two on his way to 140 not out in 20 minutes under 10 hours.

Each approach had its value, each did its job in the chase, each was equally tough for the bowlers. Fungibility is the quality of interchangeability and it is a glory of cricket that batters of such contrasting styles as Smith and Sibley can swap the strike and still advance the cause. The former England opener is not the prettiest girl or boy at the prom but he can always say that he scored the winning run – and didn’t he deserve it?

Warwickshire, who sit 32 points behind the not yet champions-elect, missed out on a chance to hang on the Londoners’ coattails after piling up 571 for six against Nottinghamshire and giving themselves all the time in the world to take 20 wickets.

The first 10 came in a hurry, all six of Will Rhodes’ attack bagging a scalp. But then the follow-on is enforced, Joe Clarke gets a start and suddenly it’s a lot of hard work. Three wickets had come in just 26.1 overs, but only three more came in the next