Kent’s new opening partners Daniel Bell-Drummond and Tom Latham batted their side to a 10 wicket victory over Glamorgan and re-wrote their county’s record book in the process.

In pursuit of 187 for victory the hosts cantered home an hour after lunch to post their maximum points win. It was Kent’s third 10-wicket triumph over the Welsh County in championship history and their first since Sophia Gardens in 2005.

Batting together for the first time in this Specsavers County Championship Division 2 match Bell-Drummond and Latham followed their first innings opening stand of 131 with an unbroken 142 at lunch in their second innings. The hosts require a further 45 for their opening win of the summer.

They are Kent’s first opening partners to post century first-wicket stands in each innings of a championship match since Arthur Phebey and Arthur Fagg recorded 107 and 132 against Gloucestershire in Gloucester in 1954. It is only the third instance in championship history that Kent have posted two separate hundred fist-wicket stands.

Amazingly the sides shook hands on the result and started walking off with Kent on 186 without loss and with the scores tied. But once made aware of the error by scorers Andrew Hignell and Lorne Hart, umpires Nick Cook and Rob Bailey replanted the stumps and called play. Bell-Drummond duly steered Harry Podmore’s next ball to the ropes at third man and the celebrations could start for real as Kent reached 190 without loss.

Bell-Drummond, fresh from 84 in the first innings, finished unbeaten with 86. While Latham, on debut, hit 53 in his first innings and was unbeaten on 79 at the end. The New Zealand left-hander became the first Kent batsman to pass 50 in both innings of his championship debut.

Latham, 24, who only landed in England last week via a long-haul flight from Los Angeles, became the first Kent player to pass 50 in both innings of his debut match.

The diminutive left-hander said: “It is nice to come away with a 10-wicket win but I think the way we started with the ball on day one set the tone for the whole match.

“We stuck at our guns pretty well in the field too. Then, it was down to me and Daniel forming a partnership today that saw us through. It was very pleasing.

“It’s pretty good so far, I’m one from one and credit goes to our bowlers for managing to bowl them out twice. With Matt Coles out for a while, Darren Stevens, Mitch Claydon, and even High Bernard, on debut, all had to step up for us.”

The Blackcap batter added: “It’s clear already that Danny and compliment each other nicely. We set ourselves small targets, five runs here, five runs there and by the end the runs were flowing. Hopefully we can continue on like this for the rest of the season.”

Robert Croft, the Glamorgan coach, though disappointed with the result, took batting positives out of the defeat.
“Looking back we got the toss wrong on the first morning. It did do a heck of a lot, which we hadn’t really expected,” said the former England spinner.

“Having spoken to Jimmy Adams, the Kent coach, they’d have batted as well. But from that moment on it was difficult for us to get back into the game, yet I thought the way we showed character with the bat on day three was outstanding. David Lloyd’s and Graham Wagg’s hundreds were superb, but let’s not forget the way James Kettleborough and Will Bragg played in the first session to get our momentum moving forward.

“It was disappointing overall, but we’ll assess what we’ve done over the four days here and look forward to the next game.”

 

Result: Kent v Glamorgan at Canterbury, May 1-4 2016:

Kent 488 (Bell-Drummond 84; Hogan 4-91) and 190/0 beat Glamorgan 260 (Meschede 63; Claydon 4-59) and 414 (Lloyd 107, Wagg 106; Stevens 4-79) by ten wickets. 

Kent: Bell-Drummond, Latham, Denly, Northeast*, Dickson, Stevens, Rouse†, Coles, Claydon, Riley, Bernard

Glamorgan: Kettleborough, Rudolph*, Bragg, Cooke†, Donald, Lloyd, Wagg, Meschede, Salter, Podmore, Hogan

Points: Kent 24, Glamorgan 5

Full scorecard available here.