This match is fascinatingly poised. Leicestershire, who have not won a county championship match since September 2012, got themselves into a very strong position to try to secure that elusive victory. They headed into their second innings with a handy first innings lead of 118.
But as so often happens with Leicestershire a bad couple of hours, in which they lost seven for 86, put them in danger of throwing away their strong position. The Australian Clint McKay, having ripped through Kent with the ball, was left to salvage the situation. Something he duly did, adding a quickfire 43 in 36 balls in partnership with Rob Taylor, who is a far better batsman than his batting position of nine might suggest. The two added 62 vital runs for the eighth wicket. Taylor went on to help Leicestershire go past a 300 lead at the close of play.
It was Ivan Thomas who made the early inroads taking the wickets of Matt Boyce and Ned Eckersley in quick succession with the new ball. A nice little partnership between the opener Angus Robson and the captain Mark Cosgrove was developing although neither looked comfortable against the nagging wobble of Darren Stevens. The partnership had moved past fifty when Mitchell Claydon made the breakthrough getting Cosgrove trapped on the crease.
Stevens then prized out his 269th and 270th first-class wickets sending Angus Robson’s off stump flying and then inducing an edge to slip to remove Neil Pinner.
Leicestershire had been reduced to 71 for five in the afternoon session, leaving their supporters with a sinking feeling of “we’ve been here before”.
After tea, things got worse for them as Ben Raine was given out lbw to Ivan Thomas and then eight balls later Matt Coles brought one back into Lewis Hill who was trapped in front of middle and leg. Raine was guilty of missing playing across the line although may consider himself unlucky as it looked as though the ball pitched outside leg stump.
Earlier on in the day, it was McKay who again impressed coming in from the Nackington Road end although it was Raine who made the initial breakthrough. He removed Joe Denly for a very patient 87, lbw to a ball from that kept low. Denly and Sam Northeast had put on 139 runs for the fourth wicket playing with determination and patience.
Kent then lost six wickets for just 11 runs with McKay dismantling the home side’s lower order, and were dismissed inside 91 overs for 268.
Having clawed their way back in, Kent now face a difficult final-day chase. The pitch is, however, a good one for batting and with a full day at the crease, Kent could knock off the runs. But they are a side low on batting confidence and if the pattern of the rest of the match continues into the final day, a collapse is never very far away.
