MATCH REPORT: Lancashire face uphill battle to save the game against Kent
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Lancashire face an uphill battle if they are to get anything out of this Rothesay County Championship game after being skittled for 87 in their first innings by Kent on the second morning, with the visitors going on to build a commanding lead and close day two on 320-8 in their second innings with an overall lead of 411.
Opener Harry Finch made 83 as Kent added to their first innings lead of 91 and set about batting Lancashire out of the game during the afternoon and evening sessions. Skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond made 34 and Chris Benjamin hit an unbeaten 101 to put the visitors in complete control with two days to go at Blackpool.
Resuming the day on 17-2, Lancashire suffered a catastrophic loss of eight wickets for 70 runs as Kent’s bowlers exploited the seaming conditions at Stanley Park, superbly led by Keith Dudgeon who added four more wickets to the two he took yesterday.
Josh Bohannon was the first to go, playing a touch inside the line and bowled for 8 by Dudgeon, followed by nightwatchman Tom Bailey, bowled by Matt Milnes for 3.
Ben McDermott pulled Hasan Mahmud for six over midwicket, but that was about the only bright spot of the morning for the Red Rose side who lost Marcus Harris for 3, caught at second slip off Mahmud, who then had Liam Livingstone caught behind for 8 off a seaming delivery.
McDermott inside edged Dudgeon onto his stumps for 23, Joe Moores edged Mahmud to first slip for 8, before Dudgeon wrapped up the innings by having George Balderson caught at midwicket and James Anderson bowled, to claim a hugely impressive 6-21 while Mahmud finished with an excellent 3-32 on his Kent debut.
Anderson responded by having Ben Dawkins caught at slip with the first ball of Kent’s second innings, but any Lancastrian hopes of skittling the visitors cheaply were dashed by partnerships of 55 between Finch and Sam Northeast, and 88 by Finch and Daniel Bell-Drummond during an afternoon where, by contrast with the morning, only two wickets fell.
With such a big lead, the Kent batters could simply get their heads down and aim to steadily bat Lancashire out of the game, and that was epitomised by the innings of Finch who made a determined 83 in two and half hours before he edged behind off Bailey in the middle of the evening session.
By then, the visitors were 178-5 and had extended their lead to almost three hundred, having earlier lost Bell-Drummond for 34 to the second ball after tea followed by Ekansh Singh for 14.
Chris Benjamin hit a brilliant 78-ball century with the wicketkeeper/batter striking 5 sixes as Kent rammed home their advantage during the final session during which they took 177 runs off a tiring Red Rose attack.
James Anderson, said:
"It’s been a really tough day for us. Yesterday we stuck at our job but they played well and then this morning – it’s happened a few times this year, we lost early wickets and couldn’t get ourselves back into the game.
“They bowled really well but I thought we could have offered a bit more with the bat. And then we didn’t quite get it right with the ball.
“The guys are working hard, it’s just been a case of us losing wickets in clusters and you just can’t do that. Part of the challenge of four- and five-day cricket is soaking up pressure and we just weren’t good enough today at doing that.
“We tried not to chase it with the ball but it feels like quite a negative two days for us. We just have to go into tomorrow believing we can win the game, otherwise there’s no point turning up at all.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams
