Essex close on Surrey by beating Kent
Spinner Simon Harmer has now taken 920 wickets in first-class cricket
- Published
Vitality County Championship Division One, Spitfire Ground, Canterbury (day four)
Essex 591-7 dec: Cox 207, Snater 83*, Pepper 82, Elgar 77; Evison 2-93
Kent: 394 & 101: Denly 23; Harmer 4-32, Snater 3-15
Essex (21 pts) beat Kent (3 pts) by and innings and 96 runs
Essex routed Kent by an innings and 96 runs in their County Championship clash at Canterbury.
Simon Harmer took 4-32 and Shane Snater 3-15 as the visitors skittled Kent for 101 in their second innings to narrow the gap on leaders Surrey to just two points.
Kent were 197 behind going into the final day and home fans were hoping a combination of the grit shown on day three and a biblical weather forecast might see them escape with a draw.
They were severely disappointed. There was torrential rain almost everywhere else in the county but play began on time and Kent endured a gruesome morning session, the tone for which was set when Zak Crawley survived just four balls before he was lbw to Snater.
Essex threw the ball to Harmer after 12 overs and he struck with his third delivery to get Ben Compton lbw for 12.
Marcus O'Riordan was next to go, making nine from 25 balls before Harmer had him caught at short leg by Nick Browne.
Daniel Bell-Drummond was lbw to Matt Critchley for 20 in the next over and Harry Finch inexplicably tried to reverse sweep Harmer on four and was lbw, although he seemed to have been hit outside the line.
Kent were 64-5 at lunch, after which there was a 10-minute delay for rain.
Joe Denly and Joey Evison at least offered some resistance, but having dealt with the spinners fairly comfortably, Evison was lbw to Snater for 16.
Snater then sent Grant Stewart's off stump cartwheeling for one to claim his 100th first-class wicket for Essex.
Denly tried to drive Harmer but was caught by Aaron Beard for 23 and with Wes Agar unable to bat, victory was confirmed when Critchley had Parkinson lbw for 10 in the 58th over.
Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond:
"We’re very disappointed. We’ve been second best for the whole game really from day one. It showed today with a few tired shots and scoreboard pressure got the better of us.
"They bowled well as well, but we shouldn’t have been bowled out for 110. It’s day four and you expect the wicket to disintegrate but we’re not happy with that performance.
"It’s been a tough seven games. We’ve shown some good signs in patches, obviously with the win at Old Trafford but with five bowlers injured, if you put that on any team, it’s going to give you a different outlook.
"There’s a few things that aren’t going our way but at the end of the day we haven’t been good enough and we need to improve if we’re going to make strides up the league."
Essex head coach Anthony McGrath:
"When we saw the wicket on Thursday at practice we knew it was probably going to be a very good one and pretty slow and that’s how it turned out.
"We probably batted on for longer than we normally would but just thought if the wicket did break up it was going to be in the later stages of day four.
"To lose Sam Cook early in the match and still get 19 wickets in the end was an incredible performance and just another example of how resilient the guys are.
"I think it shows just what a good attack we’ve got even when it’s a slow benign pitch we’ve got high-class spinners in Simon Harmer and Matt Critchley - and Tom Westley put his hand up with a few wickets so that was nice to see."
Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network
