Carter and Woakes bowl Bears to victory

Warwickshire bowled Kent out for 228 before lunch on the third day to wrap up an important victory, by 95 runs at Edgbaston

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DAY 3

Needing five wickets for victory on the third morning, Warwickshire made their breakthrough after van Jaarsveld and Stevens had added twenty one quick runs.

Carter's double strike in an over, removing Stevens 14 and Blake without scoring turned the tide back in the Bears favour and when Woakes followed up with Azhar Mahmood and Simon Cook's wickets, Kent were left requiring one hundred and sixty three more runs with just one wicket remaining.

van Jaarsveld completed his century and partnered by Matt Coles added sixty seven runs before Carter had Coles caught at cover by Botha to bring the Bears victory by ninety five runs and a further major step towards first division survival.

This victory brought the Bears their first double over Kent since 1923 and during the second innings, Carter took his fiftieth Championship wicket of the season.

DAY 2

Chris Woakes and Neil Carter tore through the Kent batting on the second morning picking up three wickets each as the visitors were dismissed for 111 in a session that helped keep alive the Bears' ambitions of maintaining their first division status next season.

Chris Woakes had Northeast caught at slip and next ball removed the prolific van Jaarsveld without scoring.

Fro m this point on the frailties of the Kent batting were exposed to full extent by some accurate and testing bowling from Woakes and Carter before Clarke wrapped up the Kent innings, by bowling Blake for thirty three as the innings closed on 111.

With a lead of one hundred and eighty three on first innings, Warwickshire chose not to make Kent follow-on and were 2-0 at lunch.

In this extraordinary match, wickets continued to tumble with warwickshire being bowled out in a session for 140 after lunch.

Stevens and Azhar Mahmood did the damage, destroying the Bears' upper order reducing them to 54-8 with only Richard Johnson ,making double figures before Woakes 51 and Carter 26 helped lift the Bears to 140 setting kent a target of 324 for victory with seven full sessions of the match remaining. 

The final session looked to be going to plan, as Woakes removed Denly 4 and Key 7, while Neil Carter added James Tredwell and Sam Northeast's wickets to his enviable haul this season, leaving Kent reeling on 36-4 before Martin van Jaarsveld and Geraint Jones came together for the fifth wicket.

They looked to have taken Kent to stumps without further damage, but Woakes, returning at the City End, struck in the final over of the day to trap Jones lbw for forty one as Kent closed the day on 131-5 still needing one hundred and ninety three for victory. 

DAY 1

Warwickshire won the toss and batted against Kent at Edgbaston and Varun Chopra got them off to a lively start, hitting five boundaries before falling lbw to Stevens for twenty four.

Stevens struck again, when Ian Westwood 14, who had been dropped off the first ball of the day, edged to slip and van Jaarsveld took the catch.

When Jim Troughton 9 followed, lbw to Simon Cook and Darren Maddy gave Jones a catch off Stevens, the Bears were 65-4.

Debutant Laurie Evans joined Rikki Clarke, but on the stroke of lunch Clarke 10 top edged Coles and the bowler followed through to complete a simple return catch with warwickshire going to lunch on 74-5.

Richard Johnson 18 was lbw to Mahmood after lunch and when Evans was yorked by Cook for fifteen, Warwickshire were 107-7 and looking at an early spell in the field.

A stand of sixty for the eighth wicket between Botha and Woakes 30, helped steady the slide and despite Neil Carter 6 failing for once with the bat, Botha 51* and Imran Tahir 35* helped the Bears through to tea on 233-9 from seventy two overs.

The last wicket pair kept up their attacking partnership, picking up a second batting point and adding 118 for the last wicket before Matt Coles had Ant Botha 76 caught down the leg-side by Jones leaving Imran unbeaten on sixty nine as the innings closed on 294 in the eighty fifth over.

Kent 's reply got off to the worst possible start when Denley was bowled without offering a shot to Woakes' first ball of the innings and when he knocked out Key's leg stump in his next over, both openers had gone for ducks.

A third wicket for Woakes came when nightwatchman Cook 9 was bowled just before the close when Kent were 37-3 still trailing  by 257 runs.