Kent under GrahamB (v12.24)

[GrahamB]

HAMPSHIRE v KENT (County Championship D2)

Victory at last, although it did come at a cost!

Batting first, Rob Key plundered a magnificent 179 as we scored 481/5 before declaring.
Dominic Cole fell just short of his maiden century, while Masakadza was also dismissed in the 90s.
Mike Powell chipped in with a half century.
Of the home bowlers, Kabir Ali took 3/89, impressive considering the circumstances.

In reply, Hampshire were looking equally solid at 151/1 and later 261/3, but after Carberry's dismissal for a fine 105, things went awry.
Jimmy Adams tried to hold the innings together, but received little support from the other end as wickets fell regularly.
Adams deservedly reached his century before being the ninth wicket to fall.
Davies and Cook were superb with the ball, finishing with 4/53 and 3/52 respectively. Tredwell also bagged three victims.

Leading by 120 runs, we harboured thoughts of a later declaration, in an attempt to gain our first victory of the season.
However, the pitch had been deteriorating and batting was no longer as comfortable as it had been.
We were gutted when a nasty ball from Ali rose sharply to fell Rob Key, causing him to retire hurt in a lot of pain.
Cole impressed again as his 48no helped us through to a lunchtime declaration on the final day at 163/3.

Hampshire had two sessions to score 284 for victory, while we were hoping to bowl them out.
We had quick success with Mahmood having McKenzie caught in the slips for just 1.
Then promising young all-rounder Liam Dawson (batting at number 3) received a brute of a ball from Mahmood, which smashed into his helmet. The young man was clearly dazed and had to be assisted from the middle.
Davies and Tredwell then ripped the heart out of the top and middle order to have Hampshire reeling at 70/6 before tea.
Mascarenhas and Wood put up stoic resistance with a 53 run partnership, but at 138/8 and the last pair at the crease, it looked to be all over with still 40 minutes remaining.
However, Mascarenhas found a staunch ally in Balcombe and they very nearly denied us victory, still there with just one over remaining!
We brought Cook back into the attack to bowl the final over hoping for a miracle, and he duly delivered, having Balcombe edging into the slip cordon to end the match.
Mascarenhas, there on 42no, had run out of partners and we had our first victory in the competition.
Tredwell (4/45) and Davis (3/56) had been the destroyers.



Good to see that we now have something in the wins column, but we need more.

[GrahamB]

News

Life has just got a whole lot tougher for us with two bits of news.
Our skipper, Rob Key, is out of action for three weeks at least following his injury in the Hampshire match.
Hamilton Masazadza has been called up to represent Zimbabwe and will also be unavailable, only for longer I guess.

[GrahamB]

Now we need further success in the Challenge Trophy, a tournament in which we reached the quarter-finals last season.

Off to Derbyshire we go, with Mike Powell captaining the side in Key's absence.
The weather conditions are expected to remain very cloudy for most of the day, so we've elected to leave Tredwell out and go with five seamers.

[GrahamB]

DERBYSHIRE v KENT (Challenge Trophy)

A much needed victory today to keep our chances alive in this competition.

The home side elected to bat first which suited us just fine.
All of their top order batsmen got starts, but only Khawaja (45) was able to carry on.
Mark Davies was magnificent with 4/21, while veteran Darren Stevens also took four wickets in favourable conditions.

We lost Neil Naylor early for a duck, but then Alex Blake took control to anchor the innings in stylish fashion.
After a slow start, we put our foot down and never really eased off, securing victory in just the 37th over.
Blake finished unbeaten on 92.



Still in the hunt!

[GrahamB]

And while we're in town, we play Derbyshire again in the County Championship.

Sam Northeast claims an opening spot ahead of Daniel Bell-Drummond, initially anyway.
Azhar Mahmood seems to off his bowling lately, so we've given him a rest in favour of Matt Coles, who has been performing consistently well for the second team. Should be interesting to see if he can perform well and keep the pressure on Mahmood.

[GrahamB]

DERBYSHIRE v KENT (County Championship D2)

We were put into bat and made the most of the opportunity, as we progressed through to 419/7 before pulling the plug.
Sam Northeast made the most of his chance with a solid 67, as his opening stand with Naylor put together 165.
Naylor fell on 99 for the second time this season, while Dominic Cole also went in the 90s again, the latter still looking for his maiden century.
Geraint Jones was the other contributor of note, with an entertaining 53.
Groenwalde was the best of the Derbyshire bowlers with 3/74.

For the second game in a row, our pace bowlers were just devastating, as they ran through the home side for 231.
Only Alex Cadbury and keeper Tom Poynton put up any resistance, both scoring well deserved half centuries.
Davies took 4/64, Cook 3/41 and Matt Coles 2/55.

We decided not to enforce the follow on, preferring to set a big victory target before declaring and then bowling at them on the last day when the pitch would be at its worst.
Naylor and Northeast put together another huge opening partnership, this time getting through to 175 before Naylor was caught in the deep for 88.
Northeast scored 88, his second half century of the match, allaying immediate fears that we would suffer due to Key's injury.
We declared at the close of Day Three at 212/2, leaving Derbyshire a whole day to score 401 for victory.

When we had four of their batsmen back in the dressing room before lunch at 59/4, we were looking odds on to grab a second consecutive victory.
However, inexperienced opener Matt Lineker had stood firm through the carnage at the other end, and found good support from Garry Park. They took the score through to 141, but when Lineker and Clare fell in quick succession, Derbyshire were 142/6 going into the tea break and in real danger of defeat.
Try as we might in the last session, we just couldn't break the partnership between Park and Poynton. Even the second new ball couldn't remove them and the home fans were mightily relieved to see their lads escape with a draw. Park finished on 77no and Poynton 43no.
Davies took another three wickets, while Coles took two.



Still bottom, but we're showing signs of becoming a force to be reckoned with!

[GrahamB]

News

England has won the first two tests against the visiting South Aftricans. That wraps up the series with just one left to play.

Brendan Nash has returned to us, having finished with his West Indies commitments.

[GrahamB]

What looks like quite a strong Essex side now visits us for the return County Championship match.

Just one change to our side, with Brendan Nash coming straight back in at the expense of Fabian Cowdrey.
Matt Coles retains his spot ahead of Azhar Mahmood.

[GrahamB]

KENT v ESSEX (County Championship D2)

Hmmm - not sure if I like the lifeless pitches that our groundsman is preparing. However, it could well have saved us on this occasion.

The visitors won the toss and chose to bat first.
We paid the price for putting down a catch off Cook midway through the first session, as he went on to smash a thrilling double century.
Cook's fellow opener, Godelman, also deserved a century, but was cruelly dismissed on 99.
Ten Doeschate (78) and Shah (55) were the other main contributors as Essex scored a mammoth 552.
Although Cook took four wickets, Davies was the only bowler that the visiting batsmen could not get on top of and his 3/110 was well deserved.

After we lost both openers cheaply, Cole and Powell dug in to put on 151 for the third wicket.
Getting into the nervous nineties got the better of Cole yet again, as he played all over a ball from Masters when he was on 94 and heard the death rattle as the ball crashed into the stumps.
Powell, Jones and Blake followed quickly in a mini-collapse before Brendon Nash and Matt Coles came together in a dogged stand.
However, the two premier pace bowlers, Masters and Topley were not to be denied and they took four wickets apiece as we were bowled out for 312.

Forced to follow during the final session on Day Three, we lost both owners cheaply again and at 25/2, we were staring down the barrel.
Nightwatchman Tredwell was joined by Cole and they saw us through to stumps without further damage.
On the final morning, Cole was caught behind off a Harhajan Singh beauty for 21 and we were 75/3.
James Tredwell chose a great time though to produce his fourth first class century, as he aided Powell in putting on 150 for the fourth wicket to give us a wonderful chance of saving the game.
At 225/4, Nash strode out to the middle to join his skipper, Powell. There was still much to do, but these two batted out most of the final session and were both there at the end, Powell on 95no and Nash 45no.



We're edging closer to getting off the bottom of the table.

[GrahamB]

Derbyshire are coming to town for the return match in the Challenge Trophy.

We've taken a risk with our team selection in selecting four specialist bowlers and relying on part-timers to complete the other eight overs, the sunny conditions not being seen as ideal for Darren Steven's medium pacers.

[GrahamB]

KENT v DERBYSHIRE (Challenge Trophy)

Wayne Madsen and Garry Park got away on us, as Derbyshire smashed their way to 248/4.

That was always going to be a stiff task for us to chase down.
Blake and Nash put us in with a chance with a valuable partnership, but the regular loss of wickets after that saw us get further and further behind the asking rate.
Dominic Cole led a late charge with 36no off 23 deliveries, but it was too little, too late.



Still in with a chance, but we need to win most of our remaining games.

[GrahamB]

We now have an away match in the Challenge Trophy against Warwickshire.

We've had to rest Tredwell and bring in Charlie Shreck, but that's the only change to the side.

[cricfan1]

Can you add one more useful Info Adding The date on which Match is Played
So we can see Day by Day Progress and the session In which your are playing

[GrahamB]

WARWICKSHIRE v KENT (Challenge Trophy)

We were put in to bat and took the initiative early.
Naylor and Cole started the fun and then Powell carried it on as we scored 242/6.

The home side were always going to struggle to chase that down against our bowling attack, and it was only a decent last wicket partnership that saved them from total humiliation.



Very tantalising!

[GrahamB]

Can you add one more useful Info Adding The date on which Match is Played
So we can see Day by Day Progress and the session In which your are playing

This is the first season. I'll certainly make it clear which season the games are in after that.