Kent: 8 without loss – trail by 229

ANDREW HALL had a hand in four of the Warwickshire to fall as Kent made a workmanlike start to their Tunbridge Wells Festival Week championship clash.

On a day when Kent would have preferred to bat first, it proved a decent toss to lose as the hosts dismissed Warwickshire by 6pm for 237 and then survived the final eight overs of the day to go in at stumps on eight without loss.

It was former England opener Nick Knight who became the first casualty of the match when he edged a wide delivery from Amjad Khan to Andrew Hall at third slip in the fifth over of the Warwickshire innings.

Hall then switched to the Railway End to take two wickets in three balls to bring Warwickshire’s acting captain Alex Loudon to the crease within the hour.

Hall plucked out the middle and leg stumps of England’s Ian Bell, who was caught on the crease by a shooting off-cutter then Jonathan Trott lost his middle stump after driving over a full-length ball.

The visitors went five down by lunch when Loudon nibbled a Khan leg-cutter to Martin van Jaarsveld at slip then, just two short of a half-century, Mark Wagh pushed inside the line of one from James Tredwell that pushed back off stump.

After lunch, with a softer ball and less seam movement, Warwickshire entrenched in a bid to eke as many runs as they could from the session, yet they lost two more wickets.

Dougie Brown’s painstaking innings of 10 ended when he squeezed a Justin Kemp off-cutter onto his stumps then James Troughton, after sticking around for 120-balls for his 29, played horribly across the line to go leg before to Min Patel and make it 151 for seven.

Kent eventually wrapped up the innings after tea, but it was a painstaking process to say the least as the wicket got even slower.

Patel had Neil Carter caught at mid-wicket from a mistimed clip and then James Anyon was well held at silly point by Matthew Walker, diving low to his right to snaffle bat-pad chance.

Then, after a last wicket stand of 52 in 19 overs, last man Lee Daggett was bowled through the gate when playing back to a full-length ball from Hall.

It left top-scorer Tony Frost, who came to the crease with his side on 109 for six, unbeaten on 66 and gave Hall figures of three for 43, while Patel bagged three for 48 and Khan two for 43.

In stark contrast to Monday’s festival of big-hitting here, there were only 27 boundaries scored in the day – a sure sign this pitch is much slower and bowler friendly that the one prepared for the one-day win over Ireland.

With sunshine forecast for Thursday, Kent’s batsmen will be hoping the Nevill pitch dries to become a little less bowler-friendly.

At the start of the day Kent welcomed back Amjad Khan from a hamstring injury in place of Robbie Joseph and elected to play spinner James Tredwell instead of seamer Simon Cook.

The visitors, who were without both overseas stars Daniel Vettori and skipper Heath Streak through back injury, gave the captaincy to former Kent player Alex Loudon.

Loudon, who left Kent in 2004 having made his Kent debut in the Royal Spa town the previous summer, became the first uncapped player to ever lead Warwickshire in a championship game.

Kent: Fulton, Key, van Jaarsveld, Walker, Stevens, Kemp, Hall, O’Brien, Patel, Khan.

SCORECARD

Warwickshire first innings

N V Knight c Hall b Khan 0
M A Waugh b Tredwell 48
I R Bell b Hall 20
I J Trott b Hall 0
A G R Loudon c van Jaarsveld b Khan 11
J O Troughton lbw b Patel 29
D R Brown b Kemp 10
T Frost not out 66
N M Carter c Key b Patel 27
J E Anyon c Walker b Patel 2
L Daggett b Hall 7
Extras 17

Total 237 all out after 100.2 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-4, 2-40, 3-40, 4-72, 5-84, 6-109, 7-151, 8-181, 9-185.

Bowling: Khan 20-5-43-2, Hall 18.2-7-43-2, Stevens 4-0-17-0, Patel 20-6-48-3, Kemp 9-1-25-1, Tredwell 29-8-51-1.

Kent first innings

R W T Key not out 5
D P Fulton not out 3
Extras 0

Total eight without loss after eight overs

Bowling: Brown 4-3-2-0, Daggett 3-2-4-0, Loudon 1-0-2-0.

Bonus points: Kent 3pts Warwickshire 1pt.

* Mark Pennell's second day report will appear here at the close of play this evening.