Not for the first time this season a top-class game of cricket ended in farce courtesy of short-sighted ECB legislation. After 242 overs had been lost to the weather over the four days, a blistering opening partnership of 159 in 20 overs between Joe Denly (80) and Rob Key (76 not out) had given Kent a chance at valuable batting points to keep their title challenge on track, only for the umpires to take the players off the field for bad light.

Surrey, desperate for points themselves for very different reasons, wanted to carry on but this year the umpires are bound by their light meters rather than by common sense.

Traditionally the question of whether to stay on in bad light was offered to the batting side, but the ECB have changed this for domestic cricket. In this instance, with all parties wanting to play, the rule was made to look ridiculous. Only 12 overs remained when the players left the field but Kent would have fancied their chances of scoring the 250 needed for two points. Surrey might conceivably have taken six wickets to earn themselves two bowling points in their fight against relegation.

Surrey, who remain 18 points adrift of both Yorkshire and Lancashire at the bottom of the LV County Championship first division, live to fight another day as they scraped together three batting points - Saqlain Mushtaq rather ironically smashing Ryan McLaren over long-on for four to take them past the 300 - but it leaves them with a mountain to climb to avoid the drop for the second time in three years.

Usman Afzaal and Matthew Spriegel negotiated several stoppages for rain and a bizarre one-over delay for light to add 86 for the sixth wicket, but they never made batting look easy on a pitch which hadn't seen anything resembling sunshine for nearly a week. Spriegel was hit on the helmet by the impressive Robert Joseph but remained unbeaten on 42 while Afzaal compiled a patient 67 before edging McLaren to slip.

There was a feeling on the county circuit when Surrey were last relegated three summers ago that they might return stronger for the experience. That certainly appeared to be the case when - inspired by the runs of Mark Ramprakash - they stormed the second division the following season with Wisden suggesting “they leapt back to their rightful place like a coiled spring”. For all his individual genius, however, Ramprakash's heroics might only have served to paper over the cracks as on this season's evidence their only rightful place should be the nets. Having narrowly escaped the drop last term courtesy of Harbhajan Singh's second-half intervention, Surrey have failed to heed the warning signs of a squad on the decline.

An on-loan Alex Tudor and a past-their-best pair of Jimmy Ormond and Saqlain could do nothing to stem the Kent tide as Denly and Key smashed them all over Canterbury. Denly racked up ten fours and three sixes in his 60 balls, while Key was no slouch recording 13 fours in a 68-ball stay. Shoaib Akhtar will be available for the last two championship matches for Surrey but his record in county cricket hardly inspires confidence.

Alan Butcher, the Surrey coach, is aware of the enormity of the task ahead. “We know we need to win both games although there are lots of teams that could get sucked in to the relegation battle,” he said. “Shoaib has been training hard as he was part of Pakistan's Champions' Trophy Squad so we hope he'll go well. We accept it's a gamble but in our predicament it's one we've got to take.”

Scoreboard

Surrey: First Innings
S A Newman b Joseph 0
C P Murtagh c Jones b Arafat 9
*M R Ramprakash c Tredwell b Arafat 127
J N Batty c Stevens b Khan 13
U Afzaal c Van Jaarsveld b McLaren 67
J G E Benning c Tredwell b Arafat 2
M N W Spriegel not out 42
A J Tudor c Jones b Khan 13
J Ormond c Tredwell b Khan 0
Saqlain Mushtaq b McLaren 4
Extras (b 3, lb 4, w 2, nb 21) 30
Total (9 wkts dec, 106.4 overs) 307

J W Dernbach did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-62, 3-118, 4-186, 5-190, 6-276, 7-295, 8-295, 9-307.

Bowling: Joseph 23-7-51-1; Khan 21-5-86-3; Arafat 20-4-66-3; McLaren 22.4-4-54-2; Stevens 5-3-11-0; Tredwell 8-1-18-0;Van Jaarsveld 7-1-14-0.

Kent: First Innings
J L Denly c Batty b Tudor 80
*R W T Key not out 76
R McLaren not out 0
Extras (w 2, nb 2) 4
Total (1 wkt, 21.2 overs) 160

N J Dexter, M van Jaarsveld, D I Stevens, G O Jones, Yasir Arafat, J C Tredwell, A Khan and R H Joseph did not bat.

Fall of wicket: 1-159.

Bowling: Dernbach 6-1-34-0; Ormond 6.2-0-52-0; Tudor 5-0-42-1; Benning 3-0-26-0; Afzaal 1-0-6-0.

Umpires: G I Burgess and P Willey.