Kent under GrahamB (v12.24)

[GrahamB]

Back to the County Championship next with an away game at Gloucestershire.
Tredwell is still not ready for action again, so we've gone in with a four man pace attack.
Coles retains his spot and Shreck gets a recall. Mahmood is still not in favour.

[GrahamB]

GLOUCESTERSHIRE v KENT (County Championship D2)

Hamish Marshall launched a blistering attack on our bowlers, smoking 14 fours and 5 sixes in his innings of 135 off 171 balls.
He was ably assisted by fellow opener, Chris Dent, as they put on an incredible 270 for the first wicket.
Dent went on to score a career best 178.
Young all-rounder Ed Young chimed in with a century as well, but although there was little else from the other batsmen, the home side scored 536 all out off just 117 overs!

In reply, Neil Naylor and Sam Northeast got us off to a great start with a stand of 171, before Naylor became Ed Young's first victim.
Northeast showed that he is a more than worthwhile squad member, as he scored a very responsible 142.
At 303/6, we were still looking shaky, but Nash and Blake put on 152 for the seventh wicket to allay our fears.
Nash has had a tremendous season and he completed his third century in this season's County Championship.
Alex Blake deserved a century too, but his innings was sawn off at 99 when he was undone by a ripsnorter from Young.
564 all out was a tremendous effort on a pitch that had been taking uneven bounce, but the result was now a foregone conclusion with only two sessions remaining.
Ed Young finished with 4/53 from his slow left armers and looked dangerous throughout.

Gloucestershire batted out the remaining time to reach 121/1.



Can we haul ourselves off the bottom with just three games remaining?

[GrahamB]

Big game for us away to Northamptonshire in the Challenge Trophy. A win here will put us in with a great chance of qualifying for the next stage.

No room for Mike Powell in the One Day side at present, so the responsibilty of captaincy has been given to James Tredwell.
Shreck is given another chance ahead of Mahmood.

[GrahamB]

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE v KENT (Challenge Trophy)

Our Challenge Trophy hopes were dashed as the heart was ripped out of our batting by Andy West and Andrew Hall. Nothing we seemed to do could halt the slide from a promising 92/2 to 152 all out.
Once Naylor went for 40, none of our other batsmen could get established.

In contrast, the home side were relatively untroubled in cruising through to victory.



It's all over for this season.

[GrahamB]

Can we make some sort of amends in our next Challenge Trophy fixture in front of our home fans against visiting Yorkshire?

Daniel Bell-Drummond comes in for Sam Northeast, Darren Stevens makes way for Fabian Cowdrey and James Tredwell is omitted in favour of pace bowler Ian Thomas.
Naylor will be expected to be our fifth bowler and Simon Cook will captain the side.

[GrahamB]

KENT v YORKSHIRE (Challenge Trophy)

Another inept batting performance saw us slump to another defeat.

19 year old Daniel Bell-Drummond held our innings together with a stubborn 87no, but could find no substantial support at the other end.
Even though we were dismissed for 175, trying to score quickly had been really tough, so we held out some hope that we could defend that total.
When the visitors were 63/2, we looked to have a good chance. However, Phil Jaques and Jonny Bairstow batted beautifully to put the game to bed.



The less said the better. Roll on Season 2!

[GrahamB]

News

England continued their dominance over the visiting South Africans with a 3-0 win in the Test series.

Rob Key has recovered from injury and should be available for our next match.

[GrahamB]

Our final Challenge Trophy match is away at Sussex.

Rob Key comes back into our side, with the desperately unlucky Bell-Drummond returning to second team duties, despite his magnificent knock against Yorkshire.
Adam Ball replaces Charlie Shreck in the only other change to the playing eleven.

Unfortunately, I forgot to save a screenshot of the two team line ups.

[GrahamB]

SUSSEX v KENT (Challenge Trophy)

We started off with a hiss and a roar, but lost momentum as wickets kept falling.
Still, 190 was still a decent score to defend.
However, our bowlers don't take enough wickets to keep the pressure on the opposition and this is our Achille's Heel.



The final points table. Bottom equal with the Unicorns says it all really.

[GrahamB]

Can we salvage some pride in our last three County Championship matches?
First we visit second from bottom Leicestershire in a clash that could well determine our final position on the table.
Adam Ball returns in place of Matt Coles.

[GrahamB]

LEICESTERSHIRE v KENT (County Championship D2)

The top order of Leicestershire fired and things were looking ominous when they were 273/2.
Fortunately, a combination of bad batting and good bowling saw the last eight wickets fall with only a further 103 runs added.
Jefferson (128), Sarwan (62) and Eckersley (57) were the main contributors.
Mark Davies again impressed with 4/101, while Adam Ball was tight in taking 2/53.

We recovered from the early loss of both openers to be 102/2, before we suffered an even more dramatic collapse than the home side had managed, all out for 183 and forced to follow on.
Hoggard was the destroyer with a devastating 6/65, proving to be virtually unplayable at times.
Cole with 57 was the only batsman who could hold his head high.

We showed much more fight in our second innings as we staved off defeat with 411/6 declared on a sharply turning pitch.
Naylor (43) and Cole (59) rescued us from the early fall of Key's wicket, but we were still in danger at 149/3 once they'd both gone.
Even though Powell fought hard for 46, once both he and Jones had gone, we were still on the brink at 254/5.
Fortunately, Brendon Nash held things together in a sixth wicket partnership of 146 with Alex Blake. When Blake went for 86, we were safe from defeat.
Nash completed his fourth century of the season before we declared early in the final session to give our bowlers a quick burst.

Davies and Tredwell helped themselves to two wickets each as the home side finished at 60/4, leaving us thinking what might possibly have happened if there hadn't been a couple of rain interruptions during the match.



Still hope for us to climb above the Foxes though, as we have a game in hand over them.

[GrahamB]

Our next County Championship match is at home against Derbyshire.

Young Roy McDowell makes his first class debut for us, taking over keeping duties from Geraint Jones. The veteran keeper has been sadly out of form this season, averaging just 19.
With conditions expected to be cloudy/very cloudy over the four days, Tredwell has been left out in favour of an attack featuring four seamers.
37 year old Mahmood gets a chance to redeem himself, while Simon Cook has been replaced by Ben Kemp. We need to find out whether or not Adam Ball and Ben Kemp are likely to have futures with us, so the pressure is really on them to perform.

[GrahamB]

KENT v DERBYSHIRE (County Championship D2)

Winning the toss and choosing to bat first, we set ourselves up for a good shot at victory with a massive 554/9 declared.
Rob Key led the way with a free flowing 160, while Cole (88 and still to score a century), rookie keeper McDowell (66), Nash (59) and Blake (50) also profited from the prime batting conditions.

Hopes that we might be able to roll the visitors twice were dashed though, as Wayne Madsen (103), Ross Whitely (134) and Wes Durston (135) all plundered centuries to set their side up to score 530 all out.
Andrew Ball was the most successful of our bowlers with 4/113.

With less than two sessions left and nothing to play for, we almost made a complete hash of our second innings, losing wickets regularly to be dismissed for 164.
Only Naylor (44) and Powell (69no) could hold their heads high.
All of the Derbyshire bowlers picked up cheap wickets, with Tony Palladino (3/30) benefitting most.

The visiting openers had one over to face before the match ended.



The points table with one match to go.

[GrahamB]

News

England squeaked home 3-2 in the test series against South Africa.
They now play three 20/20 Internationals before heading off for the 20/20 World Cup.

[GrahamB]

Our final match of the first season is away to Glamorgan.
I've decided to take the opportunity to rest Brendan Nash in order to give Fabian Cowdrey further first class experience.
Rod McDowell gets a second match with the gloves after a tidy debut in the last game.
Mahmood and Tredwell also take a break as we give a first class debut to pace bowler Ivan Thomas and a second first class outing to off spinner Adam Riley.