A GREAT late-order stand by Azhar Mahmood and Zafar Ansari saw Surrey fight back to beat Kent Spitfires on Friday, and all-but guarantee their place in the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20.
Chasing 139-4, Surrey were 61-5 but staged a recovering largely thanks to Mahmood's 47 against his former team.
Surrey reached 140-5 after 19.1 overs, securing a five-wicket victory.
And after having beaten Middlesex at Lord's by 86 runs on Thursday night, the win over Kent guaranteed Surrey at least one of the two third-placed spots to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Kent had won the toss but Chris Tremlett made them regret the decision to bat, bowling Daniel Bell-Drummond for two.
Fabian Cowdrey made a half century, added to by Sam Billings (28) and Darren Stevens (29no) as Kent finished on 139. Gareth Batty was the pick of the bowlers with 2-14.
Surrey's innings got off to a steady start with Steven Davies hitting 27 and Jason Roy 30, but things went downhill when Vikram Solanki, Kevin O'Brien and Gary Wilson only managed two runs between them.
However, up stepped Mahmood and Ansari to rebuild the innings and, barring a Middlesex-miracle, secure Surrey's place in the quarter-finals. Mahmood in particular was not in the mood for messing about and hit his unbeaten 47 off 31 balls, including three fours and three sixes.
