Kent secured a 16-run win over neighbours Surrey to claim top spot in

the South Division and book a home quarter-final in the Twenty20 Cup.

The vastly experienced Spitfires proved too strong for an experimental Surrey side who elected to rest eight senior squad members and paid the price by allowing Kent to post 184 for seven - their second-best total of this season's qualifying campaign.

South African Martin van Jaarsveld led the Kent run spree with an excellent 64 from 40 balls for his part in a match-winning third-wicket stand of 96 in nine overs with Geraint Jones, who contributed 47. Kent will now face Durham, second in the North Division, at home in the last eight.

Van Jaarsveld's fun ended when he moved across his stumps aiming an

audacious paddle sweep against Chris Jordan and Jones, who had been dropped by Jordan when on eight, then clipped to mid-wicket to become one of Matt Spriegel's haul of four for 33.

Off-spinner Spriegel accounted for Darren Stevens and Justin Kemp in successive balls as the hosts rushed for late runs, but Ryan McLaren survived the hat-trick delivery and went on to add a cameo 18 not out from 10 balls.

Without their big-hitting opener Scott Newman or veterans Mark Ramprakash and Mark Butcher, Surrey were always likely to struggle to match an asking rate of 9.2 an over.

Though six of their top-order batsmen made it into the 20s none of them could go on to play a potential match-winning innings against the wiles of McLaren and Azhar Mahmood, who mixed their pace superbly to claim four for 37 and one for 33 respectively.

Chris Murtagh top-scored with 28 from 23 balls only to run himself out when chancing a risky single to Van Jaarsveld at short mid-wicket, whose direct hit sent him packing.

Needing 11 an over with five to go, Surrey finally cracked under the pressure and conspired to lose five more wickets for the addition of only 38 runs as Rob Key's Twenty20 specialists turned the screw to secure their place in the last eight.