11.39am Tension is mounting at The Oval, writes Lawrence Booth. The equation at the start of the day was simple: Kent needed 92 runs, Surrey five wickets. After half an hour, Kent have knocked off 23 of the those runs without further mishap, although Martin van Jaarsveld came perilously close to providing Saqlain Mushtaq with his eighth wicket of the match when Matthew Spriegel just failed to cling on to a very tough chance at short leg. Van Jaarsveld had 74 at the time, and he's now on 79. At the other end, Geraint Jones pulled and glanced successive deliveries off Abdul Razzaq for four and is generally looking focused and busy. As for Surrey, they will be wondering how on earth they have found themselves in this position. At one stage yesterday they led by 177 with 10 second-innings wickets in hand. They couldn't lose, could they? We will see.
12.36pm Kent have beaten Surrey by four wickets, writes Lawrence Booth at The Oval, and it's almost exclusively down to Martin van Jaarsveld. His contribution to this game reads 114 not out, five for 33, and 115 not out, which makes him the first player for 75 years to score two hundreds and take a five-for in the same first-class game against Surrey. One to tell the grandchildren about, anyway.
Kent's progress this morning was largely untroubled until Geraint Jones edged Jade Dernbach to Ali Brown at first slip to depart for 39 and end a sixth-wicket stand of 71 with Van Jaarsveld. Yasir Arafat should have gone in Dernbach's next over, but Abdul Razzaq made a complete mess of the chance at wide mid-off and Surrey's heads dropped once and for all. Saqlain Mushtaq was expected to bowl his side to victory after taking five wickets in Kent's first innings, but it was interesting that Mark Ramprakash did not entrust Chris Schofield with a single over this morning on a pitch that has helped the spinners throughout. This is a sickening defeat for Surrey, and a painful one for Ramprakash, whose search for that 100th hundred now takes him to Trent Bridge a week on Friday. Surrey, still winless in Division One, will have to be very careful if the Ramps subplot is not to overshadow their season completely.
1.05pm Lancashire, looking for their second win of the championship, were battling against the rain at Hove today, writes Mike Averis. Chasing 107 for victory they managed just three balls in their second innings before the first interruption and at lunch they were 14 for one with the threat of heavier stuff to come.
Sussex added only 23 to their overnight score, the final four wickets going down in a four-over rush for 13 runs. All-rounder Glen Chapple, in his first game back since April, finished with six wickets for 58. Murray Goodwin, realistically the champions' only hope of a rearguard, and Ollie Morgan survived quite comfortably initially as Lancashire wasted the new ball. In fact the Zimbabwean briefly looked to have luck on his side when Luke Sutton dropped a simple chance off Chapple, only to take a more-difficult, leg-side edge the following delivery.
After being roughed up by Sajid Mahmood, Rayner went quite tamely, steering to gully, while Mushtaq Ahmed and Jason Lewry both had their stumps rearranged by full-length deliveries just before the first spots of rain arrived. Three overs were lost between the innings, but by lunch Sussex had the wicket of Lou Vincent, caught behind for five.
1.31pm Just a quick update on Chris Schofield in case it looked as if I was being a little unkind earlier, writes Lawrence Booth at The Oval. We've just spoken to the Surrey coach Alan Butcher and he explained that Schofield had a slight groin strain this morning which prevented him from bowling. Apologies for misleading you earlier.
3.15pm: Tea being taken early at Hove with no play possible since lunch, writes Mike Averis.
6.20pm Sorry for the delay. Please click here for full details of Flintoff's 66 and news from national selector Geoff Miller.
