Durham: 575; Kent: 340 and 135 for 8

KENT’S miserable start to the 2006 Liverpool Victoria Championship campaign extended into a third day as newly promoted Durham continued their march toward their maiden first-class win in Canterbury.

Having amassed 575 all out Durham, who are without six first choice players, set about dismissing Rob Key’s side for 340 to enforce the follow on by 3pm on Friday afternoon with a healthy advantage of 235 runs.

The northernmost county then reduced Kent to 135 for eight, second time around as the hosts, who remain 100 runs adrift, conspired to lose 16 wickets inside six hours.

For Key, in his first match as captain, this could not have been a gloomier start as he faces up to an almost certain innings defeat on the final day.

Dismissed by two excellent deliveries, the England batsman tried to remain phlegmatic in saying: "There’s little you can do about deliveries like those that got me in this game."

But quietly, Key must surely have concerns over a toothless display from his bowling attack, followed by the alarming capitulation and poor shot selection of his reasonably experienced batting line-up.

Resuming on their overnight score of 169 for two, Kent’s first target was to reach the 425 needed to avoid batting again but they fell well short of that and even conspired to miss out on a fourth batting bonus point by 10 runs.

Their demise began 75 minutes after the start of play when a hot-headed moment from Matthew Walker sparked the loss of four wickets for 13 runs in only eight overs.

Having looked completely at ease in scoring 27, Walker inexplicably danced down the pitch to off-spinner Gareth Breese and missed an attempted lofted drive by a country mile when the ball turned out of the rough to present stand-in keeper Jimmy Maher with a comfortable stumping.

Two balls later, and after a fluent and powerful 62 from 113 balls, Darren Stevens aimed to straight drive Dale Benkenstein only to find a thick inside edge that picked out Gary Pratt at short mid-wicket.

Five overs later Neil Dexter was squared up by another excellent leg-cutter from Graham Onions, then Niall O’Brien, having shouldered arms to four wide ones from the same bowler, finally decided to chase one only to edge to slip.

Min Patel (19) and Simon Cook (27) struck out lustily, but when Martin van Jaarsveld, batting again after his hamstring scare of Thursday afternoon, went for 83 the end was nigh for the hosts.

The South Africa Kolpak signing top-scored with 83 in 277 minutes before edging an attempted cut to second slip.

Benkenstein duly enforced the follow on and within 31 minutes van Jaarsveld was batting again.

A full-length leg cutter from Onions pegged back Key’s off stump, even though Kent’s skipper, though slightly squared up, still appeared to have everything behind the line.

David Fulton’s loose pull picked out square-leg, Walker struggled against Breese for the second time of afternoon to snick a firm-handed push to slip and Stevens drove off balance into the hands of mid-off.

Dexter, after one fine straight drive, nicked the next ball to third slip and then van Jaarsveld played right into Durham hands by chipping a drive to Benkenstein especially positioned next to the stumps at short mid-on for such a shot.

O’Brien then chose to drive against the spin only to pick of Pratt at extra cover but Patel and Cook batted through until play was halted through bad light with five overs remaining.

Other than losing the entire day to rain, Kent look set to start the summer with a heavy defeat and plenty of questions from their membership to answer.

SCORECARD

Durham first innings:

J J B Lewis b Cook 20
J P Maher lbw b Joseph 25
G J Muchall c Key b Dexter 219
G J Pratt b Patel 52
D M Benkenstein b Patel 22
G R Breese c Patel b Dexter 11
P Mustard c Stevens b Joseph 130
O D Gibson st O’Brien b Patel 33
C D Thorp c van Jaarsveld b Joseph 12
G Onions not out 17
N Killeen b Patel 5

Extras 29

Total: 575 all out after 138 overs.

Fall of wicket: 1-46, 2-52, 3-170, 4-206, 5-233, 6-482, 7-512, 8-530, 9-565.

Bowling: Khan 32-2-115-0, Cook 19-2-85-1, Joseph 29-7-124-3, Patel 28-5-100-4, Stevens 10-0-55-0, Dexter 20-5-76-2.

Kent first innings:

D P Fulton c Mustard b Benkenstein 62
R W T Key c Mustard b Killeen 23
M van Jaarsveld c Breese b Gibson 83
M J Walker st Maher b Breese 27
D I Stevens c Pratt b Benkenstein 62
N J Dexter b Onions 6
N J O’Brien c Pratt b Onions 3
M M Patel c Sub (Bridge) b Onions 19
S J Cook c Onions b Thorp 27
A Khan not out 0
R H Joseph lbw b Gibson 4

Extras 24

Total: 340 all out after 118 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-60, 2-135, 3-230, 4-230, 5-239, 6-243, 7-277, 8-333, 9-335.

Bowling: Gibson 26-7-81-2, Onions 20-3-91-3, Thorp 23-9-50-1, Killeen 30-11-63-1, Breese 8-3-14-1, Benkenstein 11-3-29-2.

Kent second innings:

D P Fulton c Lewis b Onions 13
R W T Key b Onions 1
M van Jaarsveld c Benkenstein b Gibson 37
M J Walker c Benkenstein b Breese 14
D I Stevens c Gibson b Thorp 7
N J Dexter c Muchall b Thorp 5
N J O’Brien c Pratt b Breese 13
M M Patel not out 27
S J Cook lbw b Killeen 2
A Khan not out 5

Extras 11

Total: 135 for eight after 48 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-2, 2-23, 3-59, 4-68, 5-80, 6-93, 7-101, 8-116.

Bowling: Gibson 10-2-36-1, Onions 8-0-25-2, Killeen 8-2-19-1, Breese 13-2-28-2, Thorp 6-2-11-2, Benkenstein 3-1-7-0.

Bonus points: Kent 5, Durham 8.