County Championship 2022. Division 1. Kent v Somerset. 26^th, 27^st and 28^th September 2022. Canterbury.

Jack Leach and Imam-ul-Haq were unavailable for this match.

Kent. T.S. Muyeye, Z. Crawley, D.J. Bell-Drummond, J.L. Denly, J.A. Leaning (c), O.G. Robinson (w), J.D.M. Evison, Hamidullah Qadri, C. McKerr, N.N. Gilchrist, M.R. Quinn.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, A.R.I. Umeed, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L. P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K. Rew (w), B.G.F. Green, C. Overton, K.L. Aldridge, Sajid Khan, J.A. Brooks.

Overnight. Somerset 195 for 9.

Second day 27^th September – Swamped

Kent, perhaps driven by the importance of bonus points in their drive to remain in the First Division by staying ahead of Warwickshire, hurtled across the second day like a speedboat crossing a lake with only the occasional ripple to impede its progress. The Somerset bowling, for the most part, was swept aside by Kent’s bow wave and left trailing in its wake. Kent’s pursuit of batting points was only rarely ruffled. In short, it was a rout. By lunch, 30 overs into their innings, Kent were 149 for 0. On one occasion three fours were struck in three balls during a segment of play in which 31 runs came in three overs. By the 21^st over, Somerset were using their sixth bowler. In the first hour of the innings Kent scored at a run a minute. The musings of the previous day that a score in excess of 180 might give Somerset a chance had been pushed aside like a floating twig in the path of Kent’s boat.

Before Kent batted, Somerset still clung onto one wicket with which they would hope to stretch their overnight score while Lewis Goldsworthy needed another seven runs to reach his century. But first, there was the matter of Nathan Gilchrist’s hat-trick ball which had been left hanging in the gloom of the night before. Like so many hat-trick balls, it was an anti-climax. It did strike Brooks on the pads but looked destined to comfortably miss leg stump, even from the Woolley Stand. There was a token appeal, but I doubt even that would have been made had a hat-trick not been in the offing. Brooks then managed to push enough runs to take Somerset past 200, but Goldsworthy could not pick up the momentum he had created for himself the night before and edged Gilchrist to Ollie Robinson after adding a solitary single to his overnight 93. It was, for a Somerset supporter, a disappointing end to the innings, but Goldsworthy, albeit with a little more fortune than the average, had added to his growing reputation for gritty determination when batting against an adverse tide.

Kent played a wary first couple of overs. Somerset, needing an early breakthrough, set four slips. Tawanda Muyeye was both beaten and suffered a thick edge backward of point in Overton’s first over, bowled from the Pavilion End. Beyond that, the usual September ration of occasional balls passing the edge apart, the persistent defeating of the bat of the first day was no more. It did not help Somerset’s cause that the bowlers did not exercise the same control as their Kent counterparts had, and the ball gave little appearance of movement, at least from beyond the boundary. The Kent batters were quick to take advantage. Muyeye turned Brooks, upon whom Kent were particularly harsh, into the onside for a boundary and took eight runs in total from the fourth over. Muyeye continued to attack, mainly through the on side, while Zak Crawley drove on both sides of the wicket as Kent picked off even slightly wayward deliveries. Green, essentially a stock bowler in old school terms, was called upon to replace Brooks at the Nackington Road End to try to stem the early rising tide of Kent runs. It was only the eighth over. When Crawley took ten runs from his second over, including a classic off drive to the distinctive landscape scoreboard, and an on drive to the boundary square of the new lime tree, Kent had reached 44 for 0 in ten overs.

Such was the early dominance of bat over ball, Somerset’s 202 already looked woefully inadequate. The bowling, in comparison with Kent’s the previous day, lacked bite, and the batters were not being forced to play with the same relentlessness that the Somerset batters had been. Even Overton did not seem to offer quite the usual threat, although runs came less easily from him. Perhaps there was less carry in the pitch than on the first day, for Overton looked well forward when fielding at second slip. “C’mon Jack,” someone called, already with a plaintiff tone, as Brooks returned to replace Overton at the Pavilion End. “C’mon Jack!” again, this time with a little more hope, as his first ball beat Muyeye’s drive.

It was a rare Somerset success, for Muyeye soon pulled Brooks to the midwicket boundary and Crawley drove him sharply through the covers for four. Muyeye gave Somerset no respite, continuing to favour the on side, but a square drive to the point boundary caught the eye too. By the 18^th over Somerset were onto their fifth bowler, the left-arm Lammonby. Three balls in succession Lammonby bowled short outside off stump. Three times, Crawley cut square to the boundary. “You can’t bowl long hops three times in a row outside off stump and not expect to get clouted,” said a bemused Kent supporter. The Somerset supporter watching online was more sympathetic, “Lammonby doing well to bowl. Looks like he can barely walk.” It was an exaggeration, but it made the point. Lammonby had been carrying an ankle injury for a while and looked singularly uncomfortable. After two overs for 22 runs he did not bowl again. The onslaught continued at the other end too. Aldridge, late into the attack, was driven spectacularly for four to deep point and then to the Cowdrey Stand at long on by Muyeye. For the Somerset supporter the cavern in the pit of the stomach evident so early on the first day had opened up again.

A single from Crawley at the start of the 21^st over took Kent to 100 for 0. By the 25^th, with Muyeye having struck four more boundaries, all through the on side, Kent were 132 for 0. Abell, continuously shouting encouragement to his team and now bowling himself, could find no answer and the Kent crowd were rapturously applauding every boundary. Sajid Khan was brought on, only for Crawley to employ the reverse sweep against his second ball. Four more. In that one stroke was a microcosm of Kent’s dominance and Somerset’s impotence. Only the return of Overton, together with Khan briefly gaining some control with his rapid fire off break bowling, and perhaps the approach of lunch, brought any respite as Kent were held to ten runs in the four overs before the interval. But even that hint of calm served only to give the troubled Somerset brow time to feel the numbness of spirit which results from watching your side being subjected to such a pummelling, hearing opposition supporters in full cry, and to realise that in less than a morning, Somerset’s advantage had been reduced from 202 runs to 63 without so much as the compensation of a wicket.

The lunch interval at least brought a diversion, for Somerset supporters at least. For Kent supporters the morning was perfect preparation for what followed. They lined the front of the Cowdrey and Woolley Stands, the Pavilion and the boundary boards wherever the crowd had sat in numbers. They were standing to watch a tribute to Darren Stevens, retiring after 18 seasons with Kent, and that after eight seasons with Leicestershire. Shades of James Hildreth. Hildreth had had a stand named after him. Kent do not have a spare stand and so they presented Stevens with a commemorative shirt bearing his squad number and announced the retirement of the number from use. On the bank behind the seats beyond the Cowdrey Stand had been displayed a homemade banner carrying the words, “STEVO IS GOD”. That sentiment was repeated in the warmth and extended length of the applause from the crowd. In recognition of the occasion Kent had named the day ‘Stevo Day’ and had reduced the price of entry from £15 to £10. Whether because of that, or in recognition of Stevens, or because Kent were due to bat, or a combination of the three, the crowd was significantly larger than on the first day.

Somerset regrouped, if only marginally, in the afternoon, but the advantage which Kent brought with them from the morning meant that by tea they were in complete control of the game. Crawley continued to attack the Somerset bowlers, a clip to the square leg boundary off Overton bringing a cry of, “Shot!” Overton, used to success with the ball, clasped his hands behind his head in apparent exasperation, and the incoming text said, ”We could be facing a deficit of 300.” Two more drives into the off side just added to Somerset’s woes. I wondered whether the suspect back with which Overton had returned to the Somerset side so successfully against Northamptonshire was troubling him. And then, from the other end, as if that speedboat had encountered an unexpected ripple, Green bowled Crawley through a defensive stroke. Crawley had made 79 from 102 balls. It brought relief rather than excitement, for Kent were 176 for 1 in the 38^th over and Somerset’s total, now only 26 runs ahead of Kent, looked cast adrift at the bottom of the scoreboard.

Muyeye had matched Crawley run for run, but on 85, another ripple. He edged Aldridge to Rew and Kent were 190 or 2. “There’s a bit of swing at the moment,” said the incoming text, but with Somerset’s lead down to 12 it brought no more than a chimera of hope. For Kent, Joe Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond quickly set the Kent innings back on course. Somerset pegged the five an over scoring back a fraction, but four runs an over still created quite a Kent bow wave. There was some encouragement for the Somerset bowlers. The bat was beaten once or twice, an occasional loud leg before wicket appeal rang out, and an inside edge from Denly off Brooks threatened the stumps before running to the Nackington Road boundary. But still Kent sailed on. Runs came predominantly square of the wicket, but when Abell pitched full, Bell-Drummond drove to the long on boundary and Denly straight and powerfully for four to cries of, “Shot.” It was a numbing watch for Somerset’s band of travelling supporters and one which the looks on the faces of Kent supporters suggested they could barely believe.

And then, in deteriorating light, with perhaps the movement the text had reported beginning to have an effect, some choppy water for Kent. First, Bell-Drummond edged Aldridge low through an empty third slip. Four runs. That brought more than the usual applause for it took Kent to their second bonus point while Warwickshire were being impeded by the weather. Next ball, Aldridge sent his middle stump cartwheeling. “I haven’t seen that for ages,” a Kent supporter said, part in awe, part in regret. Kent 251 for 3. Bell-Drummond 36. Lead 49. Denly was joined by Jack Leaning who promptly edged Aldridge wide of the diving and newly arrived third slip and then short of the gap between second and third slip. Somerset were at last beginning to make some headway. But before they could make it count, Aldridge hit Leaning with a lifting ball. The umpires came together, judged the light to be too poor, or the rain, which had caused one or two umbrellas to sprout, to be too heavy, and tea was taken. Kent were 265 for 3 and, despite the wicket and the slightly slowed scoring rate, a daunting 63 runs ahead.

The resumption was prompt, perhaps too prompt for Denly, for he pulled Aldridge, continuing his over from the Pavilion End, straight to Sajid Khan at deep midwicket. “He didn’t have to move,” said the plaintiff voice from behind me. Kent 266 for 4. Denly 38. Aldridge was conceding runs as quickly as most, but he was taking wickets. Denly was his third. His two wickets either side of tea might too have bought hope of finally slowing Kent’s progress. Ollie Robinson had other ideas. Abell turned to Khan. Robinson drove him square for four. Aldridge persisted at the other end and induced a top edge from a pull which fell among three converging fielders behind square leg, two runs resulting. Robinson made no mistake with the next ball which had to be retrieved from the back of the seating on the bank beyond the midwicket boundary. In his next over, Khan was driven off the back foot through the covers for four and Kent were underway again. That onslaught, stunning though it was, was only the beginning of a stand of 88 in 17 overs between Robinson and Leaning, Robinson leading the way at nearly a run a ball. Kent’s progess was relentless and unbending.

There were two boundaries in an over from Khan, one lofted over midwicket and the other deflected neatly to the Pavilion boundary. As Somerset suffered, Abell continued to shout encouragement to his bowlers but he was a loan voice. Of course, even in the most scintillating of red-ball assaults, boundaries do not come from every ball, and they did not here. At times though it felt like they were. Khan was cut sharply through backward point twice in an over. Brooks was pulled over the midwicket boundary for six. Then Leaning took ten from an over when Green was drafted in to replace the buffeted Khan. As Kent’s score rose, leaving Somerset’s 202 far behind with still only four Kent wickets down, Robinson and Leaning took breath but kept the scoreboard rattling around with a seemingly endless succession of singles. The 350, and Kent’s seventh bonus point of the match, came from a restrained push to cover from Robinson. The applause of the Kent supporters was anything but restrained. Those following the news from Edgbaston had spread far and wide the knowledge that Warwickshire’s match had again been truncated by the weather and Warwickshire were still working their way through the first innings of the match. Meanwhile, Kent were sailing virtually uninterrupted towards salvation, and putting pressure on Warwickshire as they went.

And then, for the third time in the innings, two wickets fell in quick succession. Leaning drove at Khan, the ball looped over the solitary slip and was caught by Abell fielding halfway back to the boundary. Kent 354 for 5. Leaning 41. 355 for 6 when Robinson attempted to cut Khan, missed, and lost his middle stump. The off and leg stumps were knocked askew and looked like a pair of revellers, the worst for wear, posted on social media by a smartphone user as they tried to keep their feet. Kent were 355 for 6, and Robinson had cut through the Somerset bowling with a scintillating 52 from 57 balls.

And now, with the light fading and the floodlights on, in ten overs Kent added to the day-long flood of runs with 50 more. This despite Aldridge and Overton beginning to beat the bat. Overton, fighting to the end, might easily have had a wicket, perhaps more than one. He went past the outside edge of Hamidullah Qadri’s bat four times in an over. It left him looking askance at his ill luck before he left the field with a pronounced limp. “Well bowled,” said a Kent supporter and generous and extended applause broke out around the ground. Well bowled indeed, but with Somerset being swamped it made not a jot of difference.

Somerset did take one more wicket before the, by now inevitable, autumn bad light ended the day ten overs early.The one wicket was that of Evison who clipped the persevering Aldridge straight to Khan at wide mid-off. It was Aldridge’s fourth wicket of the day. By then Evison had made 21, including two fours, in consort with Qadri who, that Overton over notwithstanding, walked off with a dominant 27 not out. It included four runs swept to long leg off his second ball from Khan; four more driven square off the back foot to the boundary in front of the flats; another back foot square drive, this time off Aldridge. Then finally, three dismissive boundaries in an over from Green, one cut square, one driven through the covers and one steered with perfection wide of slip. The second took Kent past 400 and to a fifth batting point causing the ground to erupt in cheering and extended applause. It was the day summed up in an over and Somerset had been comprehensively outplayed over two days of devastating Kent cricket. Two days remained and the outlook for Somerset was as gloomy as the light which had brought each of the first two days to an early close.

And then a postscript to the day. As I left the ground a Kent supporter said to me, “Warwickshire have declared.” It was a statement made with the finality of a statement which needed nothing added. With that he showed me his phone. ‘Warwickshire 272 for 4 dec’ it said. The declaration presumably forced on Warwickshire by the weather-induced shortage of time left in a match which they needed to win. Then the import of it dawned on me. At the start of the last round of matches Kent were 14 points ahead of Warwickshire with three wins to Warwickshire’s one. It meant, if Warwickshire obtained the maximum 24 points in this last round of matches, Kent would need ten points to finish above them. Warwickshire had just forfeited three batting points. The three bowling points Kent had gained on the first day against Somerset, and the five batting points they had gained in the second day charge to 400 meant they were safe and the final relegation place would now fall to Warwickshire or Yorkshire who, by dint of an unexpectedly poor run of form in their recent matches, had fallen into relegation contention.

Close. Somerset 202 (L.P. Goldsworthy 94, N.N. Gilchrist 6-61, M.R. Quinn 3-33). Kent 405 for 7. Kent lead by 203 runs with three second innings wickets standing.