KEVIN Pietersen's Surrey career stated with defeat as the Lions fell 90 runs short of Worcestershire's monster total of 376-6.

The result means the county can no longer qualify for the CB 40 semi-finals - but after the game the all the focus was on the performance of one man.

The England batsman smashed a return catch to left-arm spinner Shaaiq Choudhry to fall for 38 from 33 balls in a cameo innings as Surrey attempted mission impossible.

Earlier, Vikram Solanki hit 129 and Gareth Andrew 104 in the visitors' 376-6, a county record 40-over score.

But despite 80 from captain Rory Hamilton-Brown, Surrey fell to 286 all out with more than three overs left.

Pietersen has joined Surrey on a month's loan from Hampshire after being left out of the England one-day squad.

But, in his first game of domestic 40-over cricket since 2005, he was denied an early chance to find some pre-Ashes form when Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell won the toss and elected to bat on a flat Oval pitch.

The Royals certainly took advantage of the conditions, smashing the ball all around the ground with Solanki and Andrew in especially brutal form, taking 17 off Pietersen's single over with the ball.

In reply Surrey were given a blistering start by Hamilton-Brown, who saw opening partner Steven Davies cleaned up by Jack Shantry to bring Pietersen to the crease.

The former Nottinghamshire man got off the mark from his first ball with an unconvincing single through the leg side, but he was quickly into his stride with a cover drive for four off Shantry's next over.

Pietersen twice swept Choudhry for four, but was starved of the strike by Hamilton-Brown in a second-wicket stand of 79.

Pietersen enjoyed a few slices of luck as mistimed drives landed between fielders but his good fortune was ended when he made room outside the leg stump and drilled the ball back to Choudhry.

After that, some late-order hitting from Chris Schofield, Gareth Batty and Chris Tremlett gave Surrey some cheer, but they eventually fell to defeat.

Pietersen, who was dropped from the national team for the first time in his career on Tuesday, will play four matches for the Lions this month in a bid to rediscover his touch.

The golden boy of English cricket, Pietersen's form has stalled over the past 18 months and has not hit a Test hundred since March 2009 as he has seen his career average did below 50.

Having effectively been without a county since publicly announcing that he wanted to quit Hampshire to play closer to his home in London, it was not clear how the ECB would find games for their mercurial player to find his form.

However, Surrey cricket manager Chris Adams was pleased enough to be offered the services of the former England captain until to the end of the season and a loan move was quickly agreed.

But in typical Pietersen style he even managed to steal the limelight in his own execution. The 30-year-old preempting the official announcement on his twitter site with a message to his 30,000 followers that made perfectly clear his feelings on the subject.

"Yep, done for rest of summer. Man of the World Cup Twenty20 and dropped from the T20 side too. It's a **** up!! Surrey have signed me for l......" he ranted before running out of characters.

It is not the first time Pietersen has reacted strongly to being dropped. When it happened in South Africa he left to find his fame and fortune in England. He was also omitted by Nottinghamshire in 2003 and asked to be released at the end of the season.

However, this latest indiscretion did not go down well with the England hierarchy, with national selector Geoff Miller clearly furious at his reaction.

"I do not like that kind of language and I do not use that language," said Miller.

"I will certainly explain to him what my feelings are and I am sure Andy Flower [the England team director] will have a word with him."

Pietersen has since apologised for the outburst.

However, one person surely delighted with the turn of events is Adams, whose side stand to benefit hugely from a player of Pietersen's quality in their ranks just as they have lost Steve Davies to England.

"We had a phone call last week from the England management saying that they wanted to get some cricket into Kevin Pietersen," explained Adams.

Obviously there will be speculation regarding the long term future of Pietersen - who will need a home county now that his days with Hampshire are over, but Adams refused to look beyond the end of this month.

"This is not about 2011. This is about this little period of 2010 where England need to get Kevin Pietersen some time in the middle.

"The decision has been made in his best interests and England's best interests.

"The focus for him will be on those two four-day games before the Ashes."