Kent completed their preparations for the first First-Class match of the season, starting on Monday against Loughborough MCCU at the St Lawrence Ground, with a one-wicket victory against Essex at Chelmsford.

The teams agreed that they would bat for one day each, irrespective of the match position, and arguably the home side had the better of the conditions as they batted on the first day.

Kent would have been satisfied to restrict their hosts to 316 after Essex had looked well set for a higher total when 250-3. But after a superb opening stand of 207 between Sam Northeast and Daniel Bell-Drummond, Kent only just crept over the line, with 3 batsmen returning for a second innings.

It was hard work for Kent’s mainly seam attack in the first two sessions as Essex’s batsmen dominated. Mitch Claydon bowled an economical spell, but too often the batsmen could leave the ball outside off-stump, and although David Griffiths did beat the bat a number of times, Tom Westley was particularly harsh on the legside when the ex-Hampshire man bowled too straight.

The century stand between Westley (71) and Jaik Mickleburgh (50) came up in the 31^st over, and Adam Ball made the breakthrough at 103, swinging a ball back through the gate to dismiss Mickleburgh in the last over before lunch.

Nineteen boundaries were scored in the session, with a further 18 off the bat between lunch and tea, as Essex capitalised on any width; Nick Browne (42) and Greg Smith (66) taking the score past the 250 mark in the 66^th over.

Claydon (1-35) had returned to take the wicket of Westley in the first over of his second spell of the day, well caught by Sam Billings, who was sharing the gloveman duties with Geraint Jones.

Ben Harmison (1-9) repeated the trick in his first over, by trapping Smith leg before and Griffiths (1-74) returned to dismiss James Foster in the first over of his new spell; the ball rearing viciously to induce an edge to Jones.

With the light fading towards the last hour of the day, Robbie Joseph claimed his first wicket (1-69) aided by an excellent low two-handed catch at slip from Darren Stevens.

Then Brendan Nash became the fourth bowler to claim a wicket in the first over of a spell, from a flying catch by Daniel Bell-Drummond at cover. The two left-arm spinners, with triallist Imran Qayyum bowling in tandem, shared the final two wickets to bring the day to an early close. The last 8 wickets falling for 71 as Essex pushed for quick runs.

 

Essex 1st XI (1st Innings)
Batsman				Runs	Balls	4s	6s	FoW
T Westley	c SW Billings	b ME Claydon		71	130	12	0	2-152
JC Mickleburgh		b AJ Ball		51	94	10	0	1-103
NLJ Browne	c GO Jones	b AJ Ball		42	93	5	0	3-245
GM Smith	lbw	b BW Harmison		66	83	10	0	4-251
BT Foakes	c DI Stevens	b RH Joseph		21	43	2	0	6-287
JS Foster*+	c GO Jones	b DA Griffiths		4	5	1	0	5-256
GR Napier	c DJ Bell-Drummond	b BP Nash		8	33	0	0	7-293
DD Masters	c SW Billings	b I Qayyum		14	32	1	0	9-311
SI Mahmood		b DI Stevens		0	3	0	0	8-294
MS Panesar	not out			15	16	2	0
TS Mills	c DA Griffiths	b BP Nash		0	1	0	0	10-316
Extras	1b 9lb 0w 14nb 0pen			24
Total				316	all out

 

Bowler	O	M	R	W	Wd	Nb
ME Claydon	15.0	2	35	1	0 (0)	0 (0)
DA Griffiths	16.0	1	74	1	0 (0)	0 (0)
DI Stevens	13.0	4	34	1	0 (0)	0 (0)
RH Joseph	15.0	3	69	1	0 (0)	3 (6)
AJ Ball	10.0	1	27	2	0 (0)	3 (6)
MD Hunn	7.0	0	29	0	0 (0)	1 (2)
I Qayyum	3.0	0	10	1	0 (0)	0 (0)
BW Harmison	4.0	0	9	1	0 (0)	0 (0)
BP Nash	4.4	0	19	2	0 (0)	0 (0)

 

Kent began their reply on day 2 under leaden skies and floodlights, but this didn’t affect Sam Northeast and Daniel Bell-Drummond.

By lunch, both openers had passed the 50 mark; Bell-Drummond especially looking in good touch with consecutive pulled boundaries from Sajid Mahmood and a further three, all from a variety of cut shots, in the last over before lunch from Graham Napier.

The opening stand was taken past 200 as Northeast reached his century from 147 balls with 14 boundaries, including 3 consecutive fours from Monty Panesar in his first over after the interval, but ended with Northeast’s retirement at the end of the 47^th over.

Bell-Drummond reached three figures in the following over from 135 balls and his 15^th boundary, before joining his teammate back in the pavillion

Ben Harmison, apart from one clean pull off Mahmood, and Geraint Jones were both unable to get a start as, after the fluency shown by the openers, the innings somewhat stuttered into the tea break.

Fabian Cowdrey (30) and Adam Ball (19) tried to be positive against the spinners, both eventually falling to catches at short leg against Monty Panesar; the latter’s dismissal saw Jones, Harmison and Sam Billings return for a 2^nd innings each as wickets tumbled.

With Brendan Nash at one end, Kent looked to be in control, but when he misread Tom Westley’s first ball, Harmison and Billings still needed to find another 11 runs against a sharply turning ball.

This they achieved with 10 overs to spare, but both teams agreed to continue the innings.

 

Kent 1st XI (1st Innings)
Batsman				Runs	Balls	4s	6s	FoW
SA Northeast	retd, out			101	149	14	0	1-207
DJ Bell-Drummond	retd, out			102	136	15	0	2-216
FK Cowdrey	c BT Foakes	b MS Panesar		30	51	5	0	5-262
BW Harmison	c JC Mickleburgh	b SI Mahmood		7	22	1	0	3-236
GO Jones+	c JS Foster	b SI Mahmood		0	6	0	0	4-236
SW Billings+	lbw	b DD Masters		10	23	2	0	6-270
AJ Ball	c BT Foakes	b MS Panesar		19	32	1	1	7-300
BP Nash		b T Westley		17	40	2	1	9-305
GO Jones+	lbw	b MS Panesar		2	5	0	0	8-302
BW Harmison	lbw	b TS Mills		5	34	0	0	10-323
SW Billings+	not out			10	34	1	0
RWT Key*	dnb
DI Stevens	dnb
ME Claydon	dnb
DA Griffiths	dnb
RH Joseph	dnb
MD Hunn	dnb
I Qayyum	dnb
Extras	3b 8lb 5w 4nb 0pen			20
Total				323	all out

 

Bowler	O	M	R	W	Wd	Nb
DD Masters	19.0	3	51	1	0 (0)	0 (0)
TS Mills	15.2	0	70	1	1 (5)	0 (0)
SI Mahmood	11.0	2	49	2	0 (0)	2 (4)
GR Napier	11.0	1	48	0	0 (0)	0 (0)
MS Panesar	18.0	5	65	3	0 (0)	0 (0)
GM Smith	9.0	3	19	0	0 (0)	0 (0)
T Westley	5.0	1	10	1	0 (0)	0 (0)

 

 

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