A game of three magnificent hundreds was decided, in the end, by the skill and nerve of Kent's seam attack in a thrilling finish. A place in the Friends Provident Trophy quarter-finals now beckons for Robert Key's side.

Mark Butcher's 139 from 121 balls had seemingly assured Surrey of successfully chasing down Kent's fourth-highest limited-overs total yesterday. When Butcher was bowled, making room to hit away on the off side, Surrey required only another 45 at a run a ball and with six more wickets in hand.

Azhar Mahmood and Yasir Arafat, however, then combined in the closing overs to give a masterclass of yorkers, slower balls and various other assortments that bamboozled Surrey's lower order.

Alistair Brown was yorked by Arafat - who later also removed Jade Dernbach's middle stump. At the other end, meanwhile, Azhar served up a succession of loopy slower balls that accounted for Jonathan Batty, caught at short extra cover, Matt Nicholson, Neil Saker and finally Chris Jordan, who skyed to long-off. It was a remarkable finish, with seven Surrey wickets falling for 27 runs in eight overs, to a match in which the bat had previously been totally dominant.

Darren Stevens and Martin van Jaarsveld had earlier scored hundreds, too, building a Kent one-day fourth-wicket record of 216 from 24 overs in the process. Until the dramatic conclusion, indeed, it looked as if the relative caution that Kent had to show in the first half of their innings - they, too, would have bowled on a fresh morning had they won the toss - was going to prove the difference, despite the best efforts of Stevens in particular.

Coming in at 121 for three, in the 26th over, Stevens gave an exhibition of clean, largely orthodox hitting that brought him four sixes, ten fours and a 67-ball hundred in an innings spanning just 77 balls overall. With only 59 runs from five previous innings in the competition this season, and a lack of batting form generally, Stevens was under some pressure yesterday. How he responded.

Van Jaarsveld was hardly a slowcoach, scoring an unbeaten 113 from 108 balls with ten fours, but Butcher - a man who remarkably has never played a one-day international for England despite his 71 Test caps - looked as if he was scoring the hundred that mattered the most.

He dominated a first-wicket stand of 70 in 11 overs with James Benning and was joined by Usman Afzaal in a third-wicket alliance of 126 in 17 overs that put Surrey right on course. Afzaal's 74 from 60 balls was another fine batting effort; in the end, though, it was the bowlers who had the last laugh.

Kent

J L Denly b Jordan 46

*R W T Key c Ramprakash b Jordan 34

M van Jaarsveld not out 113

J M Kemp b Jordan 6

D I Stevens not out 119

Extras (lb 3, w 8, nb 8) 19

Total (3 wkts, 50 overs) 337

G O Jones, Azhar Mahmood, Yasir Arafat, J C Tredwell, S J Cook and R McLaren did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-67, 2-99, 3-121.

Bowling: Nicholson 10-0-41-0; Dernbach 10-0-85-0; Saker 10-0-79-0; Jordan 10-1-53-3; Hussain 10-0-76-0.

Surrey

J G E Benning b McLaren 23

*M A Butcher b McLaren 139

M R Ramprakash c Jones b McLaren 10

U Afzaal c Stevens b Cook 74

A D Brown b Arafat 38

J N Batty c Van Jaarsveld b Azhar 4

M J Nicholson b Azhar 7

C J Jordan c Tredwell b Azhar 4

N C Saker c Key b Azhar 1

J W Dernbach b Arafat 0

M Hussain not out 2

Extras (lb 10, w 6, nb 2) 18

Total (49.4 overs) 320

Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-91, 3-217, 4-293, 5-303, 6-307, 7-313, 8-315, 9-316.

Bowling: Arafat 10-0-55-2; Azhar 9.4-0-40-4; McLaren 10-0-75-3; Cook 10-0-72-1; Tredwell 5-0-36-0; Stevens 5-0-32-0.

Umpires: I J Gould and A A Jones.