Kent secure Beckenham win over Gloucestershire

Kent v Gloucestershire LV County Championship Division 2, Beckenham.
By Mark Pennell
KENT wrapped up a 76-run win over divisional leaders Gloucestershire with two sessions to spare by taking the visitors last five wickets inside an hour and 50 minutes in Beckenham.
Gloucestershire were finally dismissed 10 minutes before the scheduled lunch interval when Azhar Mahmood, with only his second delivery with the second new ball, had last man Steven Kirby caught at second slip to end the innings on 255.
It gave Mahmood excellent figures of five for 39 and helped Kent to bank 18 points from this their third win of the campaign as Gloucestershire lost for only the second time this summer.
Resuming on their overnight total of 131 for five and in pursuit of an unlikely victory target of 332, the only visiting batsmen to offer Kent much resistance were left-hander James Franklin (41) and Jonathan Lewis (61) – the only Gloucestershire player to post a half-century in the game.
Kent“s first breakthrough of the day owed as much to luck as anything as left-handed Vikram Banerjee (1) leant back to force a short one from James Tredwell, only to see the ball rebound off Martin van Jaarsveld“s right knee at silly point and bounce to Rob Key at slip.
Three overs later Stephen Snell (8) padded up to a Mahmood off-cutter to go leg before and, with the score on 179, Gemaal Hussain (8) pushed hesitantly at a Simon Cook leg-cutter to edge to second slip.
With eight wickets down former Gloucestershire kipper Lewis decided he may as well go for his shots and eight of his first scoring shots proved to be boundaries as he sped to a half-century.
It took a shrewd delivery to break a ninth-wicket stand between Franklin and Lewis that added 57 in 13 overs when Tredwell flighted one wider inviting Franklin to bat, but the ball turned and found the edge for Geraint Jones to pull off an excellent wide catch almost at shoulder height.
Rob Key then re-introduced Mahmood to polish the job off with the second new ball, and it was mission accomplished once Kirby nudged one into the cordon where van Jaarsveld took his sixth catch of the match.