KENT’S first-class status shone through as they made light work of minor county minnows Berkshire by nine wickets in their re-scheduled Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy tie in Canterbury.

Rain delayed the start of the match until 11.45am at St Lawrence on Thursday but Kent and Martin Saggers in particular made up for lost time by skittling out the visitors for 143 inside 45 overs.

Despite fielding three players with first-class experience in Paul Prichard (Essex), Julian Wood (Hampshire) and Carl Crowe (Leicestershire), Berkshire’s batting was soon found to be fragile.

England swing bowler Saggers took three of the first four wickets to fall and finished with outstanding figures of four for six from 7.4 overs to deserve the man-of-the-match award.

The vital wicket of the hugely experienced Prichard went to Alamgir Sheriyar who, having been struck for two consecutive extra cover boundaries, saw Prichard drag an attempted pull shot onto middle stump.

After breaking through with the new ball, skipper David Fulton introduced Andrew Symonds, who accounted for Crowe and top-scorer Wood (49) in a spell of three for 24.

Kent needed just 100 balls and 67 minutes to complete their reply as they reached victory with 33 overs to spare.

In-from Michael Carberry led the chase with 51 from 32 balls, leaving Rob Key to see Kent past the winning post with an unbeaten 61 from 44 balls.

Kent will now travel to take on Warwickshire in round three, the 12th time the counties will have met in the trophy.