Report : Kent achieve parity despite Shaw's five wickets
14 September 2017
A solid first innings card - built around four half centuries and a cameo from Sam Billings that nearly brought a fifth - showed why Kent have lost just once in the Championship this season and have stayed in the promotion picture until the final month.
Resuming at 60-2, they only lost Daniel Bell-Drummond in the pre-lunch session, and it took two wickets in three balls to check the momentum built by a century stand between Joe Denly and Sam Northeast.
Billings was also scoring briskly when he was run out by James Bracey's direct hit whilst keeping wicket in place of Gareth Roderick, but it was an attacking innings by Darren Stevens, who finished 65 not out, that saw Kent edge past Gloucestershire's first innings total before being all out for 386, a lead of one. Loanee Josh Shaw finished with 5-118.
It left Gloucestershire 25 overs to bat until stumps, a period which Chris Dent and Cameron Bancroft negotiated safely in an unbroken stand of 67, putting Gloucestershire 66 runs in front ahead of the final day.
Listen to the thoughts of skipper Phil Mustard here :
Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson had spoken before the match of Kent's positive approach, and throughout their batting order they displayed it on a pitch which continued to flatten out rather than deteriorate.
The tone was set early on by Daniel Bell Drummond, who had already found the boundary three times when he brought up the first of Kent's fifties in the seventh over of the day.
Two went to third man, and a handful of shots went off the outside half of Bell Drummond and Joe Denly's bats until Bell-Drummond (58) feathered an edge to 'keeper Roderick in a long opening spell from Liam Norwell.
His departure brought together Kent's leading run scorers in the Championship in Denly and skipper Sam Northeast, and for nearly two hours their confidence was evident as they played some crisp and well timed strokes.
Encouraged to drive, Northeast twice punched Matt Taylor straight down the ground towards the pavilion, but the same bowler might have split the fourth wicket pair had he managed to cling onto an awkward caught and bowled chance given by Denly when he'd made 32.
The flow of boundaries was temporarily stemmed in a tidy spell from Noema-Barnett but Denly was still able to reach 1000 Championship runs for the season just before lunch, when Kent were threatening a big score at 167-3.
The completion of Denly's fifty took only one delivery of the afternoon session and Northeast - who came in when Denly had 20 - wasn't far behind, clipping Norwell to the square leg boundary and then playing another trademark straight drive in completing his own half century from only 75 deliveries.
As then often happens, the stand was broken and the other established batsman was also out two balls later. First Noema-Barnett bowled Northeast for 66, and then Denly clipped Matt Taylor straight to Gloucestershire captain Phil Mustard at mid off.
At 210-5, Kent still trailed by 175 but one of the men out was night watchman Milne so there was still plenty of batting to come and Sam Billings, fresh from an unbeaten 70 in the second innings at Durham last week, showed he was in no mood to be bogged down. With the second new ball still some way off, his first four scoring shots were all boundaries off Noema-Barnett, and he continued to counter attack against Shaw from the other end, pulling him to the mid wicket boundary for six.
By this stage, James Bracey was keeping wicket in place of Gareth Roderick, who left the field with a finger injury later confirmed as a break. Bracey proved a competent deputy as he took three catches and without the gloves produced a fine piece of fielding to run out Billings for 47.
Zak Crawley also departed before tea - giving Bracey his first catch and Shaw his first wicket on a day of toil - and Kent might have been eight wickets down at tea if umpire Jeff Evans had given Darren Stevens run out after Matt Taylor appeared to deflect a drive from Haggett onto the stumps at the bowler's end. Stevens had 16, and was to profit from his good fortune after tea, even though Gloucestershire had taken the second new ball.
The veteran all rounder has been offered a new one year contract, and from 307-7 at the start of the final session showed why with a 40 ball half century which was brought up with a straight six off Liam Norwell. Stevens dominated the scoreboard in making an unbeaten 65, edging Kent in front until he ran out of partners, Shaw taking the last two wickets to finish with 5-118.
Kent had scored 326 runs in 77 overs on the day, and with time being made up Gloucestershire still had 90 minutes batting ahead of them before the close.
Chris Dent accumulated the majority of the 67 he added with Cameron Bancroft by scoring heavily off his legs and ending the day 41 not out. Bancroft, is his last innings before flying home to Australia for their domestic season, closed on 25 not out, with the odds on the game heading towards a draw on the final day.
