Lancashire v Kent day three

KENT will be praying for rain or batting miracles here in Manchester if they are to avoid LV Championship defeat to Lancashire having been made to follow-on 179 runs behind.

On a tinder-dry pitch of insipid colour that helped both seam and spin bowlers alike, Kent succumbed inside 89 overs and were batting again by 6.20pm on the third day of four.

In-form Joe Denly and Geraint Jones showed that, with watchful application, run-getting and survival were possible, but they were the only pair to get past 50 against this well-balanced red rose attack.

Needing 302 to avoid the follow-on, Kent resumed their first innings on 14 without loss but, after only eight balls, the heavens opened for the third time in the game and a further 26 overs were lost before the resumption at 12.45pm.

Kent's batsmen knew that their former player, Sri Lanka spin-king Muthiah Muralitharan, would provide the sternest test later in the day - and so it proved.

The first four wickets fell to pace, however, and all from the Stretford End of this famous Test venue.

Rob Key (28) was trapped leg before and Martin van Jaarsveld (7) fell to a yorker, both by the petulant James Anderson, who then got involved in a war of words with Denly.

The young right-hander was peppered with bouncers and subjected to plenty of back chat, but coped admirably to post a 73-ball half-century.

Matthew Walker's wild cut shot against Dominic Cork went off the edge through to the keeper then Denly, trapped on the crease when he might have got forward, was yorked by Cork to make it 122 for four.

Cork, who also got embroiled some heated by-play, pulled a groin muscle sending down the next ball to Jones and hobbled off leaving Tom Smith to complete the over.

Spin from Muralitharan and Gary Keedy provided Kent with their next test and sadly their middle order generally failed the examination as Muralitharan bagged the next four to fall.

Darren Stevens (14) went off a bat-pad catch to short-leg, James Tredwell (10) nibbled one low to slip and Andrew Hall (4) lobbed one up off bat-pad to the keeper who ran around to short backward square leg to take the chance as Murali weaved his magic.

Yasir Arafat tried to counter-attack but, on 18, his lavish pull shot spooned up to short fine leg.

Jones moved to a fluent 50 from 103 balls and was only eight short of becoming top-scorer when he went down the pitch to Keedy and again dollied a bat-pad catch to his counterpart Luke Sutton.

Last man Simon Cook helped his side to a second batting bonus point with a pugnacious 13 before he went leg before to Anderson leaving Kent 30 short of avoiding the follow on.

Openers Key and Denly survived the two overs through to the close in reaching seven without loss, and they will take up the battle again on Monday needing a further 172 to make Lancashire bat again.

SCORECARD

I J Sutcliffe c Jones b McLaren 57
P J Horton lbw b Cook 29
M B Loye c Jones b Hall 75
B J Hodge not out 156
S G Law c &b Denly 58
T C Smith st Jones b Tredwell 8
D G Cork not out 40
Extras 28

Total 451 for five declared after 112 overs.

Fall of wicket: 1-71, 2-165, 3-217, 4-354, 5-377.

Bowling: Arafat 18-3-65-0, Hall 18-0-100-1, Cook 16-1-46-1, McLaren 15-1-61-1, Tredwell 31-4-103-1, Stevens 6-0-32-0, Denly 8-0-34-1.

Kent first innings
J L Denly b Cork 77
R W T Key lbw b Anderson 28
M van Jaarsveld b Cork 7
M J Walker c Sutton b Cork 1
D I Stevens c Horton b Muralitharan 14
J C Tredwell c Law b Muralitharan 10
A J Hall c Sutton b Muralitharan 4
Yasir Arafat c Smith b Muralitharan 18
R McLaren not out 14
S J Cook lbw b Anderson 13
Extras 26

Total 272 all out after 88.4 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-83, 2-105, 3-117, 4-120, 5-160, 6-182, 7-194, 8-210, 9-244

Bowling: Anderson 22.4-7-64-3, Cork 11.1-4-30-2, Muralitharan 34-7-73-4, Smith 6.5-3-37-0, Keedy 14-2-44-1.

Kent second innings (following on 179-runs behind)J L Denly not out 0
R W T Key not out 0
Extras 2

Total 7 without loss after two overs.

Bowling: Anderson 1-0-1-0, Smith 1-0-6-0.

Bonus points: Lancashire 8pts Kent 3pts.