Coles grabs six-wicket haul as Kent fight back
Matt Coles grabbed six wickets before Joe Denly hit his 50th first-class 50 as Kent closed with a lead of 44 on day two of the Specsavers County Championship match at Worcestershire.
Joe Clarke’s first red-ball century of the season helped the hosts to a 76-run lead before he fell to Coles who cleaned up the tail for three wickets in ten balls.
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Pakistan spinner Yasir Shah struck twice after Kent toiled in the Midlands sun before Denly and Joe Weatherley’s unbroken 56-run stand steadied the Kent ship after three early wickets.
Worcestershire will not want to chase a substantial target in their final innings as Yasir is likely to pose an increasing threat during the latter half of the game between the second and third placed teams.
Former England Lion Clarke was significantly aided in Worcestershire recovering from 48-3 by George Rhodes – making his first appearance of the campaign – and skipper Joe Leach.
Rhodes, edged Coles to Will Gidman at second slip – one of four catches pouched by the all-rounder.
It was the only wicket to fall in the morning session but Shah quickly got to work after lunch as Ben Cox (19) and Ross Whiteley (0) were trapped lbw.
Barnard (16) was unfortunate to be run out as Gidman deflected Clarke’s drive onto the stumps at the bowler’s end and at 240-7, Worcestershire were still 20 runs in arrears.
But not for the first time in adversity, Leach proved a willing ally as he dominated an eighth wicket stand of 90 in 17 overs.
Four boundaries in one over from Gidman steered Worcestershire into the lead and he reached his half century off 55 balls with a straight six off Denly.
The stand was broken the final ball before tea when Clarke was caught behind off Coles who then mopped up the innings by accounting for John Hastings and Tongue to finish with 6-84 from 18.4 overs.
Leach finished unbeaten on 57 and was soon at work with the ball in his first over as Daniel Bell-Drummond (0) edged through to Cox in his first over.
Tongue came into attack and Sean Dickson (12) provided Cox with another catch and then captain Sam Northeast (14) was yorked.
Joe Denly hit ten fours and a six in an unbeaten 67 but there is work to do before the Kent attack will have a realistic total to work with.
Kent head coach Matt Walker said: “It is a better position than we were in about an hour before stumps. I thought we fought pretty hard during the course of the day.
“As was the case in our innings there were patches when they scored quite freely and then us clawing it back and bowling in good patches and then wickets coming in a bit of a cluster.
“We didn’t want to lose three wickets this evening. We hoped one, maybe a maximum of two, but the two Joes (Denly and Weatherley) played really well at the end and stuck in really well.
“To be 40-50 odd ahead with three wickets down is not a terrible position to be in. We’ve got to back ourselves to bat very well tomorrow.
“There is still a lot of time in the game. If one guy gets a hundred and it is backed up by people coming in next, a target of 250-300 will make it interesting coming into the last innings of the game.”