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Gloucestershire suffer defeat on day three at Canterbury

9 April 2017

Kent’s wily seamer Darren Stevens bagged six for 22 to help his side to secure a three-day victory in Canterbury where Gloucestershire's second innings totaled just 61 in the space of 93 minutes.

Stevens, 41, joined forces with James Harris – making his on-loan debut from Middlesex – to dismiss the visitors inside 21 mid-session overs and wrap up the win with four sessions of this Specsavers County Championship clash remaining.

Gloucestershire’s victory target of 396 on a sporting St Lawrence pitch, suddenly became a very tough task once Kent’s new ball pairing of Stevens and Harris reduced the visitors to 14 for four in the space of 28 deliveries.

Cameron Bancroft (2) appeared bemused as he played down the wrong line to lose off stump to Harris, then first innings top-scorer Chris Dent (4) suffered a similar fate when shouldering arms to a Stevens in-swinger.

Will Tavare (4) prodded forward at Harris to feather a catch to the keeper and, next ball up, George Hankins threw the kitchen sink into a drive only to be caught in the cordon by Will Gidman at third slip.

Visiting skipper Phil Mustard survived the Harris hat-trick delivery but, without scoring, he nicked behind when aiming to drive a drifting in-ducker from Stevens.

Graeme van Buuren (3) withdrew the bat against Stevens to lose off stump, as did Craig Miles (0) after groping inside the line of an away swinger to make it 24 for seven.

As they moved past 31 David Payne (6), sliced a back-foot force against Stevens to backward point where Daniel Bell-Drummond pouched a diving catch.

Jack Taylor (14) pushed defensively outside the line of another Stevens in-swinger to depart lbw then Liam Norwell, Kent’s tormentor with the ball, top-scored with 24 before he skied an attempted pull against Mitch Claydon to the keeper to finish the game by 3.50pm, while Harris completed his excellent debut with figures of three for 26 and six wickets in the game.

There was little or no signs of the drama that would follow at the start of day three as Kent batted on until shortly after lunch in adding 128 to their overnight total. Resuming on 118 for four the hosts were soon in trouble against fiery opening bursts from Norwell, who bagged three for nought in five balls.

Night watchman Harris (13) sparred at a Norwell lifter and edged through to keeper Mustard, Stevens lost his off stump when aiming an airy drive to a full delivery then, two balls later, Rouse also departed without scoring when he feathered one from Norwell to third slip where Tavare took a sharp chance.

With a five-wicket haul to his name and eight in the match, Norwell took a deserved rest, allowing experienced left-handers Gidman and James Tredwell to forge a vital eighth-wicket partnership that added an unbroken 60 through to the interval. In the process, Gidman scored a 101-ball 50 with eight fours.

The hosts came out swinging for late runs after lunch, but Gidman was bowled by Taylor without addition and, two balls later, Matt Coles fell to the same bowler after heaving across the line.

Tredwell (47*) and Mitch Claydon (16) added a precious 52 for the last wicket before Claydon clipped to mid-on to leave Gloucestershire facing their unlikely victory target of 396 with more than four sessions of the game remaining.

Kent banked 21 points for their opening Division 2 win of the campaign while Gloucestershire headed home with only three.

Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson was disappointed by his side’s ‘bad day in the office’. He said: “It’s just like the mid-session of day two when we lost those seven wickets too quickly. We keep losing wickets in clusters and batting poorly.

“It’s a great shame because we kept on scrapping in the field and our four lads, Liam in particular, bowled really well throughout for us, but we can’t afford to keep batting like that. We just didn’t stand up.

“There’s not much you can say after being bowled out for 61 on a good cricket pitch. We had a quick two-minute chat and will all have time to think it over on the way home. We’ll then have a de-brief back in Bristol and re-group before we take on Leicestershire.”

Gloucestershire will be back in action on Friday, when we welcome Leicestershire to The Brightside Ground, Bristol, for our first home Specsavers County Championship match of the season. Click here to book tickets.

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