Nottinghamshire 394 for seven – trail by 206

KENT’S tally of dropped catches reached half-a-dozen and severely damaged their chances of taking 20 wickets in the final two days of their Liverpool Victoria Championship match with Nottinghamshire.

On a docile Canterbury pitch such chances came at a premium but Kent’s fielders proved wasteful in the extreme as they allowed the struggling visitors to move within 57 runs of avoiding the follow-on.

Andrew Hall, who together with Amjad Khan, performed with tremendous gusto whenever called on to bowl by Rob Key, was the unlucky bowler in the main with four chances in all going down off his bowling.

After the early loss of David Alleyne (41) bowled by a Hall off-cutter that cut back through the gate to trim the top of middle stump, Nottinghamshire rode their luck.

Left-handed opener Darren Bicknell received three let-offs in all, twice on Wednesday evening, and then again on the third morning in reaching a determined half-century in 141 minutes.

Visiting skipper Stephen Fleming was given lives on nought and 31 by Kent’s slapdash slip cordon to further damage their bid to make the reigning champions bat again.

With little or no lateral seam movement for the pacemen and no cloud-cover to assist the swing bowlers, it seemed certain that Key would quickly turn to the left-arm wiles of Min Patel, but he was held back until 1pm, by which time, both Nottinghamshire batsmen appeared entrenched.

They posted a painstaking 85 in 34 overs before both fell in the space of three deliveries soon after lunch.

Bicknell was 15 short of a century when he top-edged a hook off Khan low to Patel running in from long-leg then, mid-way through the next over, Patel got one to turn sharply out of the rough against left-handed Fleming for Niall O’Brien to pull off a sharp stumping way outside leg-stump.

Chris Read and David Hussey upped the tempo and the entertainment value during their stand in adding 55 runs, but Kent took the new ball after 93 overs and struck within three deliveries when Khan jagged one back off the seam to snare Hussey lbw.

Three balls after tea former Kent all-rounder Mark Ealham wafted outside off-stump without any discernible foot movement against Khan and this time van Jaarsveld at second slip made sure of the low catch.

Read’s plucky innings of almost three hours came to an end for 67 when he too fell leg before to the tireless Hall and, at 332 for seven with an hour’s play remaining, Kent harboured aspirations of having another dart at Fleming’s top order.

But with, Graeme Swann on 22, Wednesday’s hero turned Thursday’s sinner when Neil Dexter downed a comfortable catch at extra cover off the luckless Hall.

That allowed Swann (55) and Ryan Sidebottom (22) to take the visitors through to the close without further alarm and, in doing so, increase their chances of batting out for the draw on the final day.

SCORECARD

Kent first innings

D P Fulton c Read b Sidebottom 65
R W T Key c Read b Ealham 31
M van Jaarsveld lbw b Shreck 108
M J Walker b Swann 141
S J Cook lbw b Sidebottom 8
D I Stevens c Smith b Shreck 7
N J Dexter not out 131
A J Hall not out 68

Extras 41

Total 600 for six declared after 176 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-72, 2-118, 3-305, 4-329, 5-534, 6-467.

Bowling: Sidebottom 32-10-76-2, Shreck 37-10-124-2, Smith 28-7-89-0, Ealham 29-3-97-1, Swann 46-7-152-1, Hussey 4-0-35-0

Nottinghamshire first innings

D J Bicknell c Patel b Khan 85
J E R Gallian c van Jaarsveld b Cook 7
D Alleyne b Hall 41
S P Fleming st O’Brien b Patel 51
D J Hussey lbw b Khan 32
C M W Read lbw b Hall 67
M A Ealham c van Jaarsveld b Khan 4
G P Swann not out 55
R J Sidebottom not out 22

Extras 30

Total 394 for seven after 135 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-20, 2-109, 3-194, 4-194, 5-249, 6-293, 7-332,

Bowling: Khan 31-11-72-3, Hall 29-5-89-2, Cook 22-7-66-1, Patel 38-3-97-1, Walker 4-1-6-0, Stevens 8-4-16-0, Dexter 3-0-16-0, van Jaarsveld 1-0-9-0.

Bonus points: Kent 6pts Nottinghamshire 5pts.

* MARK PENNELL'S FINAL DAY REPORT WILL APPEAR HERE AT THE CLOSE OF PLAY THIS EVENING.