Kent v Yorkshire day three

Kent secured their third win of the LV Championship Division 1 campaign on Monday by holding their nerve to edge out Yorkshire in a tense finish in Canterbury.

Needing 140 for a second successive four-day win, Kent suffered a post-lunch hiccup in losing three wickets for seven runs but recovered their poise to win it through Geraint Jones and Yasir Arafat.

After a cracking start in which Joe Denly hit three fours in an over off Tim Bresnan, Kent were pegged back by the right-hander’s dismissal for 19 off 18 balls.

Pushing half forward to Matthew Hoggard, he steered the ball off an open bat face to Bresnan at third slip to make it 30-1.

Then, seven runs and four overs later, Key was squared up by another Hoggard leg-cutter and edged to the keeper Gerard Brophy.

The pressure increased when James Tredwell’s uncomfortable stay for six runs ended when he inside edged onto his pad against Rashid to loop a catch to Jacques Rudolph at slip.

Having got off the mark with a straight drive four against Rashid, Darren Stevens danced down the track to his third ball in attempting another big drive but the ball turned past his outside edge giving Brophy time enough to complete the stumping and make it 63-4.

Martin Van Jaarsveld eased jangling nerves when he hit four boundaries in five balls from Rashid to ease Kent nearer to three figures.

They went in to lunch on 101-4 with van Jaarsveld on (41 not out) and Justin Kemp with (10), but before long Yorkshire were right back in it.

Van Jaarsveld went leg before to Rana Naved’s first ball after lunch then, five balls later, Justin Kemp pushed at a leg cutter to be caught behind also without adding to his interval score.

In Naved’s next over, Azhar Mahmood (2) aimed an expansive drive and appeared horrified to be given caught behind by stand-in umpire Terry Urben to make it 108-7.

Thankfully, Yasir Arafat (19) and Geraint Jones (20) kept cool heads thereafter to see Kent home with an unbroken stand worth 34 with Arafat hitting the winning boundary through extra cover off Naved.

Naved took 3-24 and Rashid 2-46 but it was Kent who banked 22 points for their win while Yorkshire took home eight.

Kent are next in action at Taunton from Wednesday in another LV Championship clash against Somerset.

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