Surrey are one of the counties who would like Martin van Jaarsveld to join them from Kent at the end of the summer. Yesterday, the former South Africa batsman, now a prolific Kolpak, scored his third successive century in LV County Championship cricket at the Oval. No wonder they are interested.

Kent, however, are understandably keen to keep van Jaarsveld, 35, who is out of contract at the end of this season, and have tabled an improved offer. Meanwhile, both Lancashire and Yorkshire also want him.

Van Jaarsveld is understood to have asked for at least a fortnight to decide his future. “At this stage it comes down to family, and I have to make the right decision for them,” said van Jaarsveld, who has been very settled in Kent. “I will think about it for the next two or three weeks.” Graham Ford, the Kent director of cricket, said he was “fairly confident” that van Jaarsveld would stay, as he also watched Joe Denly, Rob Key and Justin Kemp help to make a small slice of history. No team had ever before scored four individual centuries in a first-class match against Surrey, but there was an inevitability about all four hundreds as Kent ground their way to a sizeable first-innings lead.

It was also only the fourth time that four Kent players had reached three figures in the same innings, but the Surrey attack - badly missing the injured Andre Nel and with Chris Schofield unwell - stuck manfully to their task despite the batsman-friendly conditions.

Pedro Collins, in particular, put in a terrific spell of left-arm swing and seam before lunch, being rewarded with the wickets of Geraint Jones and Darren Stevens for ducks. Both were caught at the wicket by Jon Batty from balls angled across them: Jones from a defensive push and Stevens, acrobatically, from an attempted drive.

But the day was all about Kent's four centurions as, curiously, their top six either scored a hundred or got nought.

Denly and Key resumed with their opening partnership already at 152, and it did not take long before they were bringing up a Kent record for the first wicket against Surrey, beating the 212 added by Mark Benson and Neil Taylor at Dartford in 1986.

First to three figures was Denly, in a rich vein of form and going to his hundred with a lofted four off Murtaza Hussain, the suffering off spinner. Later he drive him for two sixes over long on and, in all, batted 190 balls for his 123 - with two sixes and 13 fours - before being run out when Key called for a sharp single to mid-wicket.

Key accelerated to his hundred with a hooked six off Collins, and then an on-drive for six, a four and a two to deep extra cover from successive balls from Hussain. Key's 123 unfortunately ended when Murtaza deflected a Van Jaarsveld straight drive into the bowler's stumps, took him 193 balls, with two sixes and 15 fours.

Van Jaarsveld finally fell for 110, from 185 balls with 16 fours, but Kemp remained until the close, unbeaten on 121 from 194 balls with 17 fours and a six. It was batting of discipline and relentless, like Australia at Cardiff. It remains to be seen, however, if like England, Surrey can bat out time on the last day to gain the draw.

Surrey: First Innings 386 (M R Ramprakash 86, M J Brown 55, C P Schofield 54)

Kent: First Innings
J L Denly run out123
R W T Key run out123
G O Jones c Batty b Collins0
M van Jaarsveld lbw b Tudor110
D I Stevens c Batty b Collins0
J M Kemp not out121
J C Tredwell not out16
Extras (b 10, lb 3, w 1, nb 2) 16
Total (5 wkts, 133 overs) 509
W D Parnell, R McLaren, A Khan and S J Cook to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-247, 2-252, 3-265, 4-269, 5-483.
Bowling: Jordan 22-2-93-0; Collins 32-7-107-2; Walters 2-1-5-0; Tudor 22-5-86-1; Hussain 44-4-158-0; Schofield 4-0-18-0; Afzaal 7-0-29-0.
Umpires: R J Bailey and J F Steele.

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