Lancashire v Kent day three

Kent’s championship aspirations were left in tatters in Liverpool on Friday where they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory to slip to a miserable 70-run defeat that looks set to keep Lancashire in Division 1 and leave Kent facing a relegation battle in next week’s final game against Durham.

Chasing 163 for victory, Kent succumbed for 92 inside 37 overs and two-and-a-half hours at the hands of veteran seamer Glen Chapple, who bowled beautifully in a 19-over stint from the Pavilion End to finish with a season’s best 6-40.

The visiting reply started dismally when Joe Denly was bowled by Oliver Newby to bag his first ever pair for the club and his seventh innings of nought this season.

Three overs on and first innings top-scorer Geraint Jones nicked Chapple's lifting leg-cutter through to Luke Sutton to also go without scoring.

Rob Key enjoyed one let off when the ball rolled back onto his stumps via the thigh pad only for the bails to stay on but Key ran out of luck with his score on 14 when given caught behind off the gloves.

Darren Stevens (0) pushing forward with an open bat face then steered the ball off Chapple to second slip where Stuart Law took a good catch diving and Kent's miserable morning was complete when Justin Kemp (1) drove loosely against Tom Smith to pick out Francois Du Plessis at point.

Despite sunny conditions, Kent’s gloom deepened after lunch when Martin van Jaarsveld (23) played back to go leg before – one of 12 lbw dismissals in the game.

Only 16 runs later, Yasir Arafat (10) push-drove at another Chapple ins-swinger to be caught behind off an inside edge then James Tredwell’s late decision to drive saw him also nick to the keeper and become the 11th player in the match to post nought.

Smith then got in on the act to pluck put Amjad Khan’s off stump for four and trap Ryan McLaren (23) leg before to bag 3-28.

Lancashire second innings

Kent needed 42 minutes to mop up the Lancashire tail by taking the last three Lancashire wickets - all of them to Yasir Arafat in the space of 10 balls.

Overnight eighth-wicket pair Glen Chapple (45) and Tom Smith (13 not out) extended their stand to 62 in 21 overs until Chapple edged to Geraint Jones who took a low catch.

Two balls later, Gary Keedy (0) lost his off stump to a yorker then, in Arafat's next over, last man Oliver Newby went leg before to another full-length in-swinger to finish the innings.

Arafat finished with 4-41 and Amjad Khan 3-53 but Kent must now investigate the number of extras they continue to concede. They leaked another 44 in this second innings taking the match tally to an horrific 76 - a ridiculous amount in such a low-scoring game.

When also considering Lancashire conceded only 19 extras in the game, Kent will maybe realize that conceding so many extras ultimately cost them victory.

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