Mahmood removes Porterfield as Kent start to make inroads in Beckenham
Wednesday 1st July 2009
Kent v Gloucestershire LV County Championship day three, Beckenham.
By Mark Pennell
A RECORD 10th wicket stand against Gloucestershire between Simon Cook and Ryan McLaren helped Kent to an unlikely second innings total of 266 all out on day three at Beckenham.
Having set a victory target of 332 in the minimum 150 overs remaining in the game, Kent secured one wicket in the 22 overs through to tea when William Porterfield (11) miscued a pull to mid-off to send the visitors into the interval on 51 for one.
Kent“s 10th wicket partners came together an hour into the third“s day“s play with their side in trouble on 179 for nine and proceeded to bat the next 25 overs in adding 87 in a shade over an hour and forty minutes.
Both men hit their best scores of the season, McLaren 42 from 71 balls and with four fours and Cook a belligerent, unbeaten 40 with six fours and from 62 balls as they beat Kent“s previous best last wicket stand of 77 set by CS ‘Father“ Marriott and Leslie Todd at Canterbury in 1929.
The stand eventually ended just after 2.30pm on another scorching hot day when McLaren tamely clipped off his legs to pick out mid-wicket and give left-arm spinner Vikram Banerjee good figures of four for 58.
Yet it was pace bowler Steven Kirby who had proved to be Kent“s nemesis on Wednesday afternoon and again this morning as he took his tally to five for 44 and seven wickets in the game.
Kirby struck in the sixth over of the morning when he pinned night watchman Amjad Khan on the back leg to send him packing leg before for five to secure his first five-wicket haul this summer.
Five overs later, the first ball of the day from Banerjee sat up asking to be hit, but sadly for Justin Kemp (41) he clattered it straight into the hands of Alex Gidman at cover.
Two runs later James Tredwell (6) clipped a near half-volley from Jonathan Lewis straight to Gemaal Husain at mid-on bringing together Cook and McLaren for their backs-to-the-wall effort either side of the lunch break.