Hockley and Tredwell dig in to lift Kent’s lead toward 300

Kent v Yorkshire LV= County Championship Division 1, Day 3
By Mark Pennell
Fortunes continued to fluctuate on day three of Kent“s LV= Championship clash with Yorkshire in Canterbury where the county went in at tea on 218 for six after 56 overs with James Hockley unbeaten on 41 and James Tredwell 10 not out.
The position represents an overall lead in the match of 252 runs after Kent took 22 minutes and a further 33 balls at the start of Friday“s play to take the last two wickets in the Yorkshire first innings.
The hosts made their first breakthrough in the fourth over of the morning when Ajmal Shahzad went leg before to Amjad Khan for 14, only two more than his overnight score.
Three deliveries later Azhar Mahmood polished the job off by trapping last man Oliver Hannon-Dalby lbw without scoring to finish with four 58. Khan gave invaluable support with three for 60.
Once again, Kent made a sticky start to their innings, however, and lost opener Joe Denly as early as the third over for only two. Driving hard outside off, he feathered one low to the right of wicketkeeper Jonathan Bairstow to make it four for one.
Then, nine overs later, Rob Key (9) followed him back to the pavilion leg-before to Hannon-Dalby. On the walk and working to leg, the Kent skipper looked surprised when umpire Nick Cook raised the finger to send him packing.
Martin van Jaarsveld and Geraint Jones steadied the ship through to lunch, the latter scoring an unbeaten half-century from 69 balls with eight fours. He reached the landmark by dancing down the pitch to loft a delivery from Adil Rashid over long on for four.
The fun ended eight balls after lunch when Jones, without adding to his 53, missed a reverse sweep against David Wainwright to go lbw. One run later, Sam Northeast was squared up by a good ball from Tim Bresnan to also fall leg before.
Wainwright was in the action again soon after when Darren Stevens. In looking to slog-sweep a full-length ball from the left-arm spinner, was well held at short mid-wicket by Rashid.
Only 22 short of a deserved century, Martin van Jaarsveld appeared surprised to be given leg-before when working to leg to Rashid“s seventh ball of the day bringing together Hockley and Tredwell for their vital seventh-wicket stand.