Warwickshire v Kent
Warwickshire completed a victory at Canterbury by 44 runs
Warwickshire 21 pts Kent 7 pts
Having won the toss at Canterbury and put Warwickshire in to bat, Kent were rewarded with wickets at regular intervals throughout the day, after the openers Maddy and Westwood had posted a half-century first wicket partnership.
Jonathan Trott recorded his second half-century of the match, but only Neil Carter was able to offer real support and a last wicket flurry with Imran helped the Bears reach 250.
Cook and Coles each took four wickets and by the close of the first day, Kent had quickly reduced the deficit by forty-three runs despite the loss of skipper Rob Key.
Kent batted strongly on the second day, with Denly in good form and with useful contributions from Coles, van Jaarsveld, Northeast and Stevens they threatened to bat the Bears out of the game when they passed their first innings total with six wickets in hand.
Rikki Clarke’s career best, 6-63 proved to be the performance the Bears needed as he tore through the Kent middle-order, bowling the home side out early on the third morning for 377 , but with a useful 127 run lead.
After losing Maddy early, in the second innings, Westwood and Bell’s 157 run second wicket partnership took the Bears into the lead, before the dismissal of Trott early on the final morning, having made a second half-century, heralded a collapse that saw the last seven wickets tumble for the addition of just sixty nine runs.
Again, useful late order runs from Neil Carter helped Warwickshire post a target of 201 for Kent with two full sessions of the final day remaining.
Chris Woakes bowled Denly with the second ball of the innings in the only over before lunch and he followed up with Jones wicket after the break. Clarke trapped Key lbw, but a partnership of sixty three either side of tea, between van Jaarsveld and Northeast looked to be taking Kent to victory before the introduction of Darren Maddy swung the match back in favour of the Bears.
In conjunction with some accurate bowling from Imran Tahir, 114-3 became 156-9 in an exciting final session that saw Kent completely collapse against the mounting pressure exerted by the Bears’ attack.
Chris Woakes returned at the Pavilion End and sent Ntini’s stumps flying, to help the Bears record an impressive forty-four run victory in a match where Kent had held the upper hand for much of the match.
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