Adam Riley was pleased with the performance of the bowling unit, as the Kent attack put their side firmly in control on day two against Derbyshire.

Having been dismissed for 333 during the morning session, Kent ran through Derbyshire in the afternoon, with eight wickets falling for 65 runs between lunch and tea, including a spell of 6-19 in 71 balls at one stage.

Kent eventually bowled out their opposition for 115, before enforcing the follow-on and reducing them to 32-3 at stumps, still with a deficit of186 runs.

22-year-old off-spinner Riley has been in fine form this season, sitting fifth in the country in terms of the number of wickets taken, with 37 victims in the 10 matches he has played so far. He was the pick of the bowlers for Kent in the Derbyshire first innings, taking 4-30, while Darren Stevens (3-25), Doug Bollinger (2-20) and Robbie Joseph (1-27) all contributed as well.

“We were due it”, Riley said of the team’s bowling performance when KSN caught up with him at the close of play.

“We haven’t really bowled as a unit in the last couple of games [against Essex and Glamorgan], where we’ve been in the dirt a long time. I think today was when it came together, and we all shared the wickets around, which is good for the bowling unit. It was a good team bowling performance today.”

Having enforced the follow-on, Kent were able to further press home their advantage in the evening session – a decision that Riley said had been made by the whole team.

“I think Keysy [Rob Key, captain] was keen to push the follow-on”, he said, “but obviously it was a team decision.

“If the seamers say “no, we want to have a bit of a break”, we would have batted again, but I think the bowlers sniffed a chance to get them three or four down again in those overs that were remaining, so we went for it, and luckily it’s paid off for us at 32-3.

“Hopefully we can take that into tomorrow.”

Riley also spoke about the importance of such a good day for the side in terms of momentum after some disappointing results in recent weeks, with a tough draw against Essex followed by an innings and 11-run loss at Glamorgan last week.

“I think it’s massive”, the Sidcup-born spinner said.

“Not just because of the Glamorgan game last week, but the week before as well – we’ve had two long stints in the field where we’ve not had much success, so it was important today that, as a bowling unit, we did what we set out to do – to implement those plans to try to keep it tight and starve the batsmen of runs.

“When they’re not going anywhere, when you get two quick wickets, all of a sudden, the scoreboard is heavily in your favour.

“It was important as well from what we did on the first day – we felt that at 250-8, we were at a good place with the pitch.

“Maybe people didn’t realise how good a score that would be – at 333, obviously, with the bowlers at the end adding almost 100 more, it was crucial – that could be the deciding factor in the game.”

 

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