Kent’s decision to bat backfired at New Road as Worcestershire had much the better of the opening day of their Rothesay County Championship Division Two tussle.
Worcestershire closed the first day on 94 for one after bowling Kent out for 196. Olly Hannon-Dalby, his loan from Warwickshire extended for another four games, bowled superbly for 18-6-27-3, building pressure which debutant Beyers Swanepoel exploited to take three for 51. Kent’s total at least represented something of a recovery from 99 for seven, thanks to eighth-wicket pair Matt Milnes (50 from 61 balls) and Keith Dudgeon (38, 61).
Worcestershire completed a strong first home day of the season by reaching 94 for one (Jake Libby 52 not out, 72) on a very good cricket wicket. To provide such a good pitch, offering some help to the bowlers but also value to the batters when they played well, is an incredible effort by head groundsman Stephen Manfield at his team, considering that New Road was flooded six times during the winter.
Kent’s decision to bat was surprising and though Zak Crawley settled well, batting watchfully, he lost two partners in the first hour. Hannon-Dalby’s opening spell of 7-3-7-1 included the wicket of Ben Compton, caught by Ethan Brookes at second slip, and Swanepoel struck with his 15th delivery for Worcestershire which trapped Sam Northeast lbw. When Crawley (27, 42) edged to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick in Matthew Waite’s first over, three wickets had fallen in 29 balls.
Tawanda Muyeye and Daniel Bell-Drummond eked out 37 from 21 overs but Kent hit serious post-lunch turbulence. Four wickets fell for 24 runs in 46 balls, triggered by Bell-Drummond offering no shot at Swanepoel only to see the ball arrow in to knock out leg-stump. Hannon-Dalby produced perfect outswingers which Muyeye and Chris Benjamin edged to the ‘keeper. Joey Evison, dropped on five, one of three chances grassed by Adam Hose at first slip, reached only 14 before falling lbw to Waite.
That was 99 for seven and Kent badly needed ballast. Milnes and Dudgeon supplied some with a composed and sensible stand of 50 in 14 overs. Swanepoel returned to oust the latter lbw and Matt Parkinson soon edged Tom Taylor behind but Milnes and last man Michael Cohen added 41 before the latter edged Brookes to supply Roderick’s fifth catch of the innings.
Dan Lategan launched Worcestershire’s reply with a flurry of six fours in the first five overs. He then edged Milnes to third slip in search of a seventh boundary but it was a valuable cameo from the 19-year-old. It gave the innings early impetus on which Libby built with characteristic compactness to post a 67-ball half-century.
Worcestershire bowler Olly Hannon-Dalby said: “There’s been a lot of chat about this pitch and how much it might do but it just looked like a good cricket wicket to me. The new ball nibbled like it should do and swing around a bit like it should do, then after that when the ball got softer it was pretty hard work.
“It was hard work as a bowler, to be honest. If you bowled well, nice and straight, you cold shut down the batters, and it was a really good effort from our batters in the last session.
“To be at Worcester wasn’t what I was planning two months ago, but I am enjoying it. It’s just nice to be playing some cricket. There are a lot of bowlers at Edgbaston right now and it appears I wasn’t going to play a great deal in these first few games so to be here and playing some cricket is brilliant.
Kent all-rounder Matt Milnes said: “It was nice to get a few runs. The pitch got slightly easier as the day went on and I tried to make the most of that. Keith batted quite positively which meant that I could just tick over. He is a good batter to have down the order and it worked really well, as hopefully it will many times this season..
“At the back end of the innings. we put up a bit of a fight and managed to get close to 200 but we are slightly behind in the game. As a bowling group we didn’t put the ball in the right areas for long enough and that’s what we need to do tomorrow.
“Lategan played very positively and hit some nice shots early on against a few balls that we were not too unhappy with as a bowler. Thankfully he nicked one of them and we have got to just stay patient in there and keep charging in and try to hit off-stump. I know Jake Libby very well so hopefully I can produce a good one for him tomorrow.”