Northants v Kent: Bowling Stone triggers Kent loss
Monday 22nd June 2015
Olly Stone took a career best 5-44 as Kent were bowled out for 151 as Northamptonshire won by eight wickets on the third day of the LV= County Championship match at Wantage Road.
Having been 38-2 at lunch, Sam Northeast was bowled by Rory Kleinveldt, but Joe Denly and Darren Stevens added 42 for the fourth wicket in the sole resistanceofferedby the visitors.
However when Stone broke the stand, Stevens edging to slip on 28, the visitors crumbled losing their last seven wickets for 51 runs.
Stone trapped Adam Ball (7) LBW in his next over, before Denly top edged an attempted pull to be caught at fine leg for 39, Kent's top score in the match.
Two further wickets in successive overs, Tredwell out LBW for 9 and Matt Coles (2) caught behind followed as Stone completed his second first-class five wicket haul.
Muhammed Azharullah and Kleinveldt returned to share the final two wickets as the visitors were bowled out in under 40 overs for the second time in the match.
Wes Newton hit an aggressive 27 to get Northants close to the victory target of 46 before top-edging Ivan Thomas to Ryan Davies.
Kent-born opener Ben Duckett nicked Darren Stevens to Coles at slip in the next over before captain Alex Wakely (13) and Rob Keogh (1) saw Northants home.
Northamptonshire captain Alex Wakely admitted the hosts had asked for a slightly more bowler friendly pitch, but said it was a good cricket wicket which allowed his side to pick up their second win of the season and first at home.
“We’ve played some very good cricket but we haven’t managed to force a result,” he said. “We asked for a sporting pitch and we got a good cricket wicket in my opinion and we managed to play good cricket and got the result we needed.
“It was a phenomenal spell [by Stone] we were saying in the slips we were as far back as we’ve been for anyone, that was quick, for someone at 21 he’s a pretty exciting talent and I’m very pleased for him as he was just struggling for a bit of confidence lately but that was superb, it was a hostile spell.
“It’s a good place at the moment, there’s a good buzz around the ground I think everything’s just about right at the club from top to bottom so it makes it more enjoyable and easier to play.”
Kent assistant coach Matt Walker admitted his side had beenoutplayed and said they need to improve their batting having been dismissed twice in under 40 overs.
“Lot of emotions, ultimately disappointing, frustrating and embarrassing,” he said. “We never really got ourselves going in this game, Northampton outplayed us in every format, bowled better batted better and in the end we probably got what we deserved.
“They [the players] know they haven’t played their best cricket and we haven’t played our best cricket for the majority of this season in four day cricket, in this game we didn’t play well enough for any period of the game.
“The batting hasn’t been good enough, we haven’t batted for long enough, you can’t expect to bat for 70 overs in a match, regardless of the conditions you don’t give yourself a chance of winning games of cricket, we need people to step up and score runs it’s pretty simple.”