Rain stalls heroic Tredwell in his tracks as Kent fight back against Derbyshire

Kent v Derbyshire LV County Championship Division 2, Day two, Canterbury.
By Mark Pennell
A fourth half-century of the summer by all-rounder James Tredwell coupled with a steady deluge of rain helped salvage Kent from the doldrums on day two of their championship clash with Derbyshire.
Persistent showers meant no play was possible after tea, leaving the hosts to go into day three on 249 for eight, and a deficit of only 54 in this game between the top two teams in the LV Championship Division 2.
Tredwell top-scorer with an unbeaten 67 from 151 balls by the tea interval and was largely responsible for taking Kent to the cusp of their second batting bonus point in hitting nine fours in his dogged, 160-minute stay.
After lunch the left-hander featured in a seventh-wicket stand worth 58 in 20 overs with Ryan McLaren before the latter fell leg before when playing back to the first delivery of left-arm spin from Graham Wagg.
Wagg then had Wayne Parnell (3) athletically caught low down at mid off by Steffan Jones to give the visitors their eighth wicket and Wagg excellent figures of five for 83 – three with seam and the last two with spin.
Responding to Derbyshire“s first day total of 303 all out, Kent started the day on a promising 49 for one but continued to lose wickets at regular intervals as left-arm seamer Graham Wagg took three and Tim Groenewald two as Kent added a meagre 86 runs.
The first casualty of the day was home skipper Rob Key who, having reached 25 followed one going across him from Wagg to nick to keeper Freddie Klokker.
His replacement Martin van Jaarsveld enjoyed a life when on six after Wagg downed a low return catch on his follow-through, but the South African failed to capitalise and fell to Wagg with his score on 12 after mistiming a drive to Wavell Hinds at short extra cover.
Only 11 runs later Darren Stevens (8) followed a Groenewald leg-cutter to edge to second slip then Geraint Jones (23) drove at a wide one to go the same way and give Groenewald two wickets in three balls.
Sixth-wicket partners Justin Kemp and James Tredwell almost made it through to lunch unscathed but, with five balls to go until the break, Kemp jumped across his stumps in trying to work Wagg through mid-wicket only to leave leg stump exposed and be bowled around his legs and Kent went in still trailing by 168 runs.

Photo by ARPics