Kent bowl out Glamorgan on day one of LV= Championship clash
Sunday 31st August 2014
Kent bowled out Glamorgan for 329 after Chris Cooke hit a maiden first-class century on day one of their LV= County Championship Division Two match at Canterbury.
The 28-year-old South African-born batsman was last out for 171 after holding Glamorgan’s first innings together against a Kent team still with an outside chance of promotion and aiming to win at least three of their last four championship games.
It always looked like being Cooke’s day after he was dropped on two by Adam Riley at second slip, off Darren Stevens, and overall he batted for 214 balls and struck 18 fours and a six.
Riley’s miss was hugely costly for Kent, who would have had their opponents 15 for four had Cooke been dismissed. As it was, Cooke and Jim Allenby put on 62 for the fourth wicket to begin Glamorgan’s recovery from 7 for three.
Allenby made 44 from 44 balls, leading a counter-attack with eight fours, but it was not until Dean Cosker joined Cooke in an eighth wicket partnership of 118 in 32 overs that Glamorgan moved into a position of comfort following their decision to bat first on a good pitch and in warm, sunny conditions.
The 36-year-old Cosker’s two-hour 45, from 104 balls, was only seven runs short of his career-best, and his determined resistance gave Cooke the opportunity to go past his previous first-class best – 96, also against Kent, in June – as well as hauling Glamorgan up from a distinctly under-par 183 for seven.
Mitch Claydon led Kent’s bowling effort with 4 for 47, and it was the burly seamer who ended Cosker’s resistance in his second over with the second new ball.
Claydon also added the tailend wicket of Michael Hogan, bowled swishing, to those earlier of Jacques Rudolph, caught at first slip for nought during an opening spell of 5-4-1-1, and Allenby, who was caught behind thin-edging an attempted pull.
Stevens supported Claydon well, starting with a new ball spell of 10-4-15-1 and having Gareth Rees caught at the wicket for 3 as he tried to force away square on the offside. Later, in the second over after lunch, Stevens saw David Lloyd, on 7, drive him straight to mid off.
Robbie Joseph, making his first championship appearance since June, removed Will Bragg leg-before, after the batsman had struggled through 41 balls for his 3, and Matt Hunn, a 20-year-old paceman playing just his second championship match, won an lbw appeal to send back Graham Wagg for 18.
Riley did have the consolation of taking Cooke’s wicket, when he drove high to Hunn at long off, but only after he had batted for five hours and displayed a range of strokeplay unmatched by any other batsman.
The 22-year-old also claimed the wicket of Glamorgan skipper Mark Wallace, who contributed 24 to a sixth wicket stand of 58 with Cooke before lifting a drive to short extra cover.
Kent will resume on Monday at 11am at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence on 1 without loss in their first innings with Daniel Bell Drummond and captain Rob Key at the crease.