It was tough going for Kent on the second day of their match against Leicestershire. They wrapped up the visitor’s first innings just before lunch but the clouds rolled in as the players were munching their salads, leaving Kent with more difficult conditions to bat in.
Australian Clint Mckay opened the bowling for Leicestershire from the Nackington Road end and produced a hugely impressive nine-over spell in which he was got prodigious movement off the seam and picked up two wickets for 24 runs in his opening spell. The first to go was Daniel Bell-Drummond, who prodded forward to a ball that seamed away and took a thick edge to Rob Taylor at second slip. Rob Key was given lbw having been hit on the back pad for eight with the score on 40.
That left a rebuilding job for Joe Denly and Brendan Nash, but the scoring was slow against disciplined and probing bowling. Indeed, scoring proved difficult all afternoon on a slow pitch with very few bad deliveries. Nash was the third wicket to fall with the score on 76. He got a thick edge behind for 21 pushing forward defensively off Rob Taylor.
Opener Denly curtailed his natural attacking instinct to play a determined and patient innings. He battled through the afternoon session, scoring just 30 from the 99 balls he faced. He brought up his half century an hour after tea with a pull for six over midwicket.
As Denly’s partnership with Sam Northeast progressed into the evening session and as the ball lost all of its shine, the two were able to score more freely. But the light deteriorated and the day was terminated just before half past five. Despite the 76 run partnership between Northeast and Denly, Kent still trail by 231 runs and will need to bat for much of the third day in order to keep themselves in this match.
In the morning session, the ever-green Darren Stevens wrapped up the Leicestershire innings, taking all five remaining wickets to dismiss the visitors just before lunch for 386. They’d added a further 86 runs to their overnight score. Two wickets fell in the first five overs of the morning, that of Ben Raine and Clint McKay.
Raine played round his pads and was trapped in front for 12, and then two overs later McKay was caught for six at deep backward point from a thick edge trying to drive straight.
Leicestershire’s wicket-keeper Lewis Hill made an important half-century on his first-class debut. Hill, who is 24 and has the nickname show-pony, was brought into the side having impressed in the second team for the last few weeks.
