Kent v Gloucestershire: Specsavers County Championship
8 May 2016
Day 2
Kent captain Sam Northeast led from the front with an unbeaten 154 that moved his side into a commanding position at the mid-point of their Specsavers County Championship Division 2 clash with Gloucestershire.
With his side in trouble on six for two Northeast, in tandem with Kent’s new overseas professional Tom Latham, turned the course of events on their head with a third-wicket stand of 204 inside 53 overs as Kent reached stumps on 304 for three.
The pair came together after Kent, responding to the visitors’ workmanlike total of 337, had lost two wickets within 15 balls at the start of their reply.
In-form opener Daniel Bell-Drummond, playing his 100th first-class innings, defended his third delivery off the back foot against David Payne, only for the ball to trickle back onto the stumps for a duck.
In his next over Payne, Gloucestershire’s slingy left-arm paceman, got one to hold its own against the slope to square up Joe Denly in his back-foot defensive push and pluck out off stump. Denly also went without scoring from six deliveries.
Northeast and Latham had little or no trouble once the shine and hardness went off the ball and combined either side of tea in a textbook double-century stand.
Northeast posted his first championship 50 of the season from 83 balls, while Latham faced the same amount of deliveries for his third successive half-century in Division 2.
Northeast went on to cut Kieran Noema-Barnett for his 12th four for a 147-ball century, the 12th of his first-class career, as Kent went in at tea on 198 for two.
Latham also looked set for three figures but, after facing 157 balls without a mistake, he was undone by Noema-Barnett’s lack of pace. Playing too soon to a slow off-cutter, Latham got a leading edge to scoop a comfortable return catch to the bowler to go for 90.
Their stand was Kent’s best for their third wicket at Canterbury, beating 197 set by Alan Wells and Trevor Ward in 1997.
Northeast marched on, moving past 150 for only the second time in championship cricket from 222 balls and with 18 fours, to go with his straight six lofted off spinner Jack Taylor as he and Alex Blake (45*) combined to add a further 94 through to the close.
At the day’s start. Kent had needed 41 minutes and 11 overs to pick up Gloucestershire’s 10th wicket, that of last man Josh Shaw for 17. Attempting to leg glance against Calum Haggett, Shaw edged leg-side for Adam Rouse to compete a tumbling catch to his left for his fourth catch of the innings and his 14th of the season.
Payne was left unbeaten on 46, while Haggett, Darren Stevens and Mitch Claydon finished with three wickets apiece.
Day 1
Hamish Marshall was the top performer on day one against Kent, scoring the 28th first-class hundred of his career in Canterbury. The 37-year-old right-hander rescued Gloucestershire from 14 for four and led them to 296 for nine after they had won the toss and chosen to bat.
Extracting decent carry and a little nip off a first-day surface at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Kent’s veteran new-ball pairing Mitch Claydon and Darren Stevens shared six wickets, including two apiece inside the opening 18 overs of the match.
The sixth-placed visitors lost Chris Dent (1) 16 balls into the game. Pushing late and down the wrong line to a full-length ball from Claydon, he went lbw for a single.
Four overs later, number three Ian Cockbain, in attempting to pull against Claydon, edged through to keeper Adam Rouse to depart for a 12-ball duck.
After an hour at the crease opener Cameron Bancroft (7) pushed at a good length lifting leg-cutter from Stevens to be caught behind then, in his next over, Stevens produced a near identical delivery to account for Gareth Roderick (1) and give Rouse a third catch of the session against his former county.
Marshall’s back-foot cut through backward off the bowling of Calum Haggett opened his side’s boundary account once Stevens rested following an obdurate 10-over spell of two for 10 from the Pavilion End that included five maidens.
Yet it was Matt Hunn, on his season’s debut, and Haggett claimed Kent’s only mid-session successes. Haggett bowled George Hankins (41) to end a fifth-wicket stand that added 87 in 20.5 overs, then Hunn nipped one down the Canterbury slope to clip the top of middle stump as left-hander Kieran Noema-Barnett (24) played back and across the line.
Marshall might have gone with his score on 35, but Claydon was unable to cling on to a low caught and bowled chance in his follow-through allowing the Blackcap batsman to reach a 179-ball century with 11 fours.
Kent were left a bowler light at 4.25pm when, after bowling the 69th over, off-spinner Adam Riley went off the field with a suspected side strain.
Marshall took full advantage to add 112 in 27.2 overs in tandem with Jack Taylor who looked assured in scoring a 74-ball 50 with seven fours. But Taylor blotted his copybook in the penultimate over before the second new ball by driving a return catch to Stevens for a gift third wicket of the day.
Five deliveries later, Claydon’s first delivery of a new spell from the Nackington Road End, lifted, struck Marshall on the gloves and ballooned to Tom Latham at second slip to end his 202-ball stay. Marshall had batted almost four-and-a-half hours for his 112.
Claydon and Stevens shared the second new ball but without success as ninth-wicket partners David Payne (22*) and Craig Miles (20) added 39, before Miles edged a loose back-foot force against Haggett to Stevens at slip.
Kent had made three team changes to the side that beat Glamorgan by 10 wickets to move third in the Division 2 table on Wednesday.
Opening bowler Matt Coles, suspended for two games under the ECB’s disciplinary procedures, was replaced by Haggett. Top-order bat Sean Dickson needed eight stitches in his left hand after cutting himself when trying to repair a fan at his home. The South African could be out for a fortnight and was replaced by Alex Blake, while Hunn was preferred to rookie seamer Hugh Bernard, who made his first-class debut in the win over Glamorgan.
Gloucestershire’s in-form century-maker Hamish Marshall was delighted by his side’s first day comeback in the Garden of England.
“It’s going nicely and always feels good early season when pitches can be that little bit tougher,” said Marshall after scoring his third championship century against Kent and second in successive matches.
“George Hankins batted nicely and was looking set when he got out, then I formed crucial partnerships with Kieran Noema-Barnett and Jack Taylor that took us almost to 300.
“You have to be wary of the slopes here and there’s no doubt the Kent attack asked a few questions of us early doors. I just tried to be disciplined with my leaving and it felt good to get through to three figures.”
