Somerset v Kent day two

Kent are still in with a slight chance of forcing a positive result in Taunton after Somerset skipper Justin Langer elected not to enforce the follow-on on day two of this fluctuating LV Championship clash.

After falling 59 short of making Somerset bat again, Kent probably expected to be invited to bat again but former Aussie Test legend Langer elected to rub salt in their wounds by piling even more runs onto his 219 lead.

By stumps and the mid-point of the game, the hosts had reached 129-5 – an overall advantage of 348 – with Langer on 65, his 50 coming from 84 balls, while Craig Kieswetter had reached six.

But, with two days remaining and the pitch easing by the hour, Kent may yet fancy their chances of taking the West Country county’s last five wickets and chasing down the runs.

Second time around, Langer soon lost opening partner Marcus Trescothick (8) when, after calling for a quick single to cover, Joe Denly ran in to throw down the stumps at the striker’s end.

Three overs later, first-innings top-scorer Zander de Bruyn (1) snicked Robbie Joseph to James Tredwell at second slip then, after a stand of 49, James Hildreth flat-batted a wide ball from Ryan McLaren to Tredwell at cover point.

The hosts reached 102 by the time Peter Trego edged a good delivery from Martin Saggers through to Jones then, in the very next over, Ian Blackwell chipped back a return catch to Tredwell to go for a fourth-ball duck.

Earlier in the day, Kent were dismissed inside 58 overs to trail by 219 on the first innings.

The visitors, responding to Somerset's first innings total of 427, limped to one batting bonus point but were not made to follow-on after Langer elected to bat again.

Kent’s first victim of the day was Martin van Jaarsveld who, with his score on 15, edged Charl Willoughby through to keeper Kieswetter.

The score moved on to 75 before Tredwell (23) was beaten by late in-swing from South African seamer Alfonso Thomas to go leg before.

Four overs later, Matt Walker (23) also went lbw to Thomas to make it 90-6.

Geraint Jones (25) and Justin Kemp added 44 in 14 overs for the seventh-wicket, the second biggest stand of the innings, but soon after lunch, Jones, pushing forward at Ben Phillips, got a thin edge through to the keeper.

Three overs later, Yasir Arafat, recovered from his stomach upset of Wednesday, cut hard at Steffan Jones only to see Phillips pull off a stunning one-handed catch in the gully and send the Pakistan all-rounder packing for eight.

The catch more than atoned for a blunder in the previous over when Phillips downed a return catch off Kemp who had reached 22.

But Kemp failed to make the most of the

let-off as, three runs later when driving hard at Jones, he edged to first slip where Langer held an excellent catch.

Kent’s last wicket pair added 50 to muster a batting point but with his score on 34, McLaren nicked to slip to give Thomas three wickets.

Joseph remained unbeaten on 24 while Jones and Willoughby also bagged three wickets apiece.

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