Ball hits second 50 in Championship draw
Adam Ball completed back-to-back fifties as Kent drew with Essex in the Second XI Championship at Polo Farm, writes Liam Buttery.
Following a delayed start due to overnight rain, the visitors batted patiently against Ball and Stewart early on, with Nijjar and Ali putting on 68 for the fifth wicket.
The partnership frustrated the Kent bowlers, but once Appleby caught Nijjar for 30 at mid-wicket off the bowling of academy scholar Jan Gray, the wickets came more easily for the hosts.
Fatouros was bowled by Riley for 4, and when Russell edged behind Gray to Jordan Cox to complete his pair for the game, Essex were 184-7 and in danger of setting Kent a generous second innings target.
Stamatis (12) and Ali (76), however, played well to accumulate 33 and put the game back in Essex’s favour, despite the excellent bowling of Adam Riley (1-30) and Jan Gray (2-31). Skipper Adam Ball noticed a tactical change from the visitors to accelerate the scoring, and his response was to bring the seamers back on.
With Calum Haggett nursing an arm injury and unable to bowl, Grant Stewart (4-54) took the crucial wicket of Ali and then that of Stamatis. It took some lusty blows from Bocking and Cook, who scored 15 from 11 balls, at the end of the innings to get Essex’s lead up to 233, which led to the declaration a short while prior to tea.
Sean Dickson and Zak Crawley saw the hosts into tea at 32-0 after seven overs thanks partly to aggressive running between the wickets. Following the interval though, this ploy back-fired as three batsmen were run out. Dickson fell first for 26, followed by Crawley for 19.
Joe Weatherley made an attacking 22, before edging behind Nijjar through to Russell, which bought Adam Ball out to the middle to join Kai Appleby. The pair put on 55 for the fourth wicket and both looked to hit the ball hard once they were in.
Ball hit the spinners straight, whereas Appleby used the reverse sweep effectively, and the contrasting scoring areas the two possess complimented their partnership well and made them difficult to bowl to.
Appleby became the third run out victim of the innings when he fell for 37, and with Haggett (4) and Cox (8) both dismissed by Beard cheaply, Kent found themselves chasing in excess of ten runs per over with six wickets down.
With time running out and no result looking likely following an exciting final evening, in the last over the sides shook hands, with Kent finishing on 195-6.
Calum Basey and Adam Ball finished unbeaten on 11 and 57 respectively, as the sides now move on to two T20 matches at Polo Farm on Thursday from 10.30am.
