Bowlers toil for modest reward after Denly's gamble
9 June 2018
Not many Championship captains have decided against taking up the option to field first at the Brightside Ground since the right to by-pass the toss was brought in. However, a sunny Saturday saw Joe Denly fly in the face of the regular pattern and once his 50/50 chance went his way, for most of the day Kent's top order made it look the right call.
Opener Sean Dickson chalked up Kent's first Championship hundred of the season, adding 124 for the first wicket with Daniel Bell Drummond (49), the pair batting for almost half the day before Craig Miles induced an edge and Chris Dent took the catch at second slip.
With the second new ball still 15 overs away as play began after tea, Gloucestershire had the bonus of two wickets with the old one, Dickson dragging a delivery from Miles into his stumps for 117, and Heino Kuhn (38) playing van Buuren to James Bracey at mid off.
Ryan Higgins also accounted for Zak Crawley before the close - Dent taking his second slip catch of the day - meaning that Gloucestershire had recovered some of Kent's advantage by stumps, when they had reached 297-4.
Watch the thoughts of Craig Miles on the day's play here:
Craig Miles with his thoughts at the close of day 1 against @kentcricket who closed on 297-4 after winning the toss pic.twitter.com/6zTvxJQ7f7
— Gloucestershire CCC (@Gloscricket) June 9, 2018
Gloucestershire recalled James Bracey and Kieran Noema-Barnett, neither of whom appeared in the Royal London Cup, and also handed a home debut in Championship cricket to George Drissell. The 19 year old off spinner was one of six bowlers used before lunch without success as Kent began the day in stoic fashion.
At one stage in the first session five overs came and went without a run but Bell-Drummond and Dickson appeared unruffled by their lack of progress. There were a couple of enthusiastic lbw appeals but with few deliveries drawing false strokes, most of the Gloucestershire bowlers tried to force errors through accuracy. There were only two boundaries in the first hour but in the last ten overs before lunch Kent's opening pair added 38 runs, almost doubling the score despite, at times, some less than secure running the wickets.
Dickson went to lunch on 47 not out, and completed his fifty in the first over after the resumption from 108 balls with five boundaries. Whilst still without a breakthrough, Ryan Higgins becalmed Bell Drummond for a while by bowling a length which left him unsure whether to play forward or back, but the opening stand had reached 124 when Miles - the most attacking of the Gloucestershire bowlers - found the edge of Bell-Drummond's bat and skipper Dent made no mistake at second slip.
With a good base, a ball nearly 50 overs old and a largely unresponsive pitch, Heino Kuhn wasn't prepared to loiter on the scoreboard when he came in, cracking a boundary straight away off the back foot and soon sweeping Drissell on both sides of the wicket as Kent tried to disrupt the young spinner's rhythm. The pair ticked up 50 runs in 14 overs, Dickson continuing to deftly deflect the ball behind square on the off side. By tea the Kent opener was only three runs short of his century, and a dab off Howell was enough at the start of the final session to see him to three figures, a landmark he reached with 11 fours.
At that point Kent were threatening to cut loose, but while 110 runs came in the final session, Gloucestershire took three important wickets to get into the visitors' middle order. Dickson had just pulled van Buuren for six to mid wicket and flat batted Miles to the long on boundary when he was bowled off an inside edge for 117, and Kuhn played a ugly stroke to van Buuren after he changed ends.
The new ball was taken at 236-3 against two relatively new batsmen in Zak Crawley and skipper Joe Denly, but both played stylishly until Dent snapped up another edge off Ryan Higgins to remove Crawley for 30. Denly and Darren Stevens saw Kent to stumps at 297-4, still a position which leaves Gloucestershire needing early wickets on day two in order to restrict Kent's control of the match.
