County Championship: Somerset lower order and pacemen help defeat Kent

Lewis Gregory ripped through Kent's top order in the second innings to finish with match figures of 8-44

Somerset completed a remarkable final-day turnaround to win their opening County Championship match against Kent.

The hosts were 181-9 in their second innings at Taunton, a lead of just 143, but a last-wicket stand of 62 between George Bartlett (63) and Jack Brooks (35 not out) took them to 243 all out.

Set 206 for victory, Kent slumped to 45-6, as Somerset seamer Lewis Gregory (5-18) tore through their top order.

The visitors were eventually all out for 131, to lose by 74 runs.

A Somerset victory looked unlikely when, having resumed on 171-7, they lost Craig Overton and Josh Davey early - Mitch Claydon (4-66) removing the latter for his ninth wicket in the match.

But for the next 40 minutes, 21-year-old batsman Bartlett and debutant Brooks took the Kent bowling apart in an aggressive partnership which lasted fewer than 10 overs.

• Relive the final day of Somerset's victory over Kent

Brooks, who scored a century for Yorkshire in 2017, had struck five fours and a six in his 31-ball innings when Bartlett was pinned lbw by Darren Stevens.

Kent's chase then got off to a disastrous start as Sean Dickson poked Gregory's first ball to Overton in the slips and Australia batsman Matt Renshaw also went for nought, edging a beautiful swinging delivery by Brooks to Gregory.

After some brief respite, Gregory removed Daniel Bell-Drummond and Zak Crawley in consecutive overs, with captain Heino Kuhn's lbw dismissal by Overton sandwiched in between.

Twenty20 Blast captain Gregory continued to find the batsmen's edges after lunch, picking up Ollie Robinson caught at slip with his third ball of the afternoon to leave Kent six down.

Stevens (43 not out) shepherded the tail to make sure Kent got past 100 before Gregory returned to dismiss Matt Milnes for his fifth wicket and Davey finished things in the next over.