Ian Ward scored a battling unbeaten century, but Kent look odds on favourites to take the spoils against Surrey at Canterbury.

Kent's last four wickets added another 86 runs as they were bowled out for 260 in their second innings, to set Surrey a huge victory target of 409.

Martin Saggers continued to cause problems by removing Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash with 54 runs on the board.

But Ward and Rikki Clarke repaired the damage with a third wicket stand of 123.

Clarke hit a six and nine fours as he racked up 66 before being snared by Andrew Symonds.

His dismissal signalled a mini collapse with five wickets falling for just 31 runs to virtually end Surrey's hopes of winning.

Symonds picked up two more wickets and Saggers also took his third when he removed the dangerous Adam Hollioake, who had smashed a quickfire century in Surrey's first innings, for eight.

Saqlain Mushtaq dug in to stop the rot and remained undefeated on 31 as Surrey's eighth wicket realised an unbroken partnership of 56 runs.

Ward will resume on Monday undefeated on 115, but Surrey have a mountain to climb, needing a further 145 runs to win with three wickets in hand.

Kent: D P Fulton (Capt), R W T Key, E T Smith, A Symonds J B Hockley, P A Nixon (Wkt), M A Ealham, J M Golding, M M Patel, A Khan, M J Saggers.

Surrey: I J Ward, M A Butcher, M R Ramprakash, R Clarke, A D Brown, A J Hollioake (Capt), J N Batty (Wkt), I D K Salisbury, Saqlain Mushtaq, J Ormond, E S H Giddins.

Umpires: D J Constant and T E Jesty