Parkinson spell puts Lancashire in control
England’s Zak Crawley hit 54 for Kent on his return to the LV= Insurance County Championship, but late wickets from Lancashire’s Matt Parkinson reduced the hosts to 133 for three on day two of their game at Canterbury.
Parkinson claimed three for 39, leaving Kent 373 behind at stumps, with their top scorer Ben Compton unbeaten on 60. Earlier Steven Croft hit 155 and Phil Salt 97 as Lancashire posted 506 all out.
After the first four sessions were dominated by batters, Hamid Qadri took career best figures, claiming six for 129 despite having suffered a hand injury that had forced him off the field at the end of day one, the visitors losing their last five wickets for 40 runs.
Lancashire resumed on 344 for 4, with Croft on 113 and Salt on 33 and they steadily ticked off milestones during a morning session largely bereft of tension.
Salt reached 50 with a single off Qadri and Croft got to 150 glancing a single from the same bowler, only to get out one run short of his career best, when Qadri had him caught behind.
It was Kent’s sole wicket of the morning, Lancashire reaching 466 for five at lunch, but Qadri struck again with the second ball of the afternoon session, when he lured Salt into an attempt to clear the boundary and was caught just inside the rope by Daniel Bell-Drummond.
Qadri then drew an edge from Luke Wood, who was caught in the slips by Darren Stevens for 14 and he claimed his fourth victim when Tom Bailey tried to loft him over mid on and was caught by Jordan Cox for a duck. When Hasan Ali cut the next ball to Zak Crawley at first slip Qadri had his first five-wicket haul for the hosts, but Matt Parkinson steered the hat-trick ball past the slips for a single.
Parkinson was then hit on the helmet when he ducked into a Nathan Gilchrist delivery but he and Danny Lamb steered Lancashire past 500 with a useful last-wicket stand of 31 before the latter was bowled trying to charge Qadri.
The start of Kent’s innings saw Lancashire react to every unsuccessful delivery with synchronised anguish, but their initial excitement was quelled as Ben Compton and Crawley batted through the rest of the afternoon session to reach 51 for 0 at tea.
Crawley swept Parkinson to the boundary to reach his half-century, but when Compton nudged the same bowler for a single, Crawley was bowled by Parkinson’s next ball, ending an opening stand of 109.
Bell-Drummond survived two loud lbw appeals before Parkinson bowled him with an unplayable delivery for two. He then pinned Tawanda Muyeye lbw for 6, leaving night-watchman Qadri to survive three overs and finish not out for two.
