Following three intriguing days in the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match at Merchant Taylors’ School in Hertfordshire, the result of the Middlesex v Kent match was in the balance with the visitors slight favourites.

Resuming on 186 for 4, Middlesex needed another 170 to win while Kent needed six wickets. Leus du Plooy was on 36 and Ryan Higgins on 10.

Having added just three to his overnight score, it was unlucky thirteen for Higgins when Matt Quinn removed his middle stump with one that cut back through his gate. Then with 209 on the board, du Plooy’s stumps were flattened by Matt Milnes for 40. The celebration that followed showed that Kent saw it as the key wicket.

Zafar Gohar didn’t last long when he was pinned in front by Quinn, and that brought in Toby Roland-Jones, a key member of the wagging tail in the first innings.

As Joe Cracknell watched on from the other end, Milnes was replaced by Keith Dudgeon and he flattened Roland-Jones’ leg stump with his first ball before Tom Helms crashed the next two to the boundary boards.

Those boundaries seemed to give Middlesex a confidence boost and the two of them batted well. Cracknell became the first home game player of the match to score a half century, reaching his landmark off 81 balls with eight fours. At lunch, a seventy-five run partnership meant that the hosts were 300 for 8, with Cracknell not out 59 and Helm unbeaten on 31, needing another 56 runs.

When they came back after lunch, Daniel Bell-Drummond was aware that there were only ten overs until the new ball was due but he couldn’t risk the majority of the runs required being scored in that time so he brought back Matt Milnes.

However, it was Matt Parkinson who got the all important breakthrough when Helm sliced his dry to short extra cover and Bell-Drummond took an easy catch.

Next ball, he bowled one into the rough that darted back to the left handed number eleven Noah Cornwell and clattered his middle and leg stumps, giving Kent the win by 46 runs. Cracknell was left distraught, unbeaten on 65.

That sets things up nicely as Kent now travel to Wantage Road in second place in the table where they will face Northamptonshire who are third.