Kent v Yorkshire

Skipper Rob Key recorded his first four-day hundred of the summer to hold together Kent’s faltering reply on day two of their LV Championship clash at St Lawrence.

In pursuit of Yorkshire’s first innings of 410 in 109.4 overs, Kent reached 298-6 with Key as comfortable top-scorer on 124 not out, easily beating his previous best of the season, 79 against Nottinghamshire back in April.

At the mid-point of the game, Kent trail by 112 with four first-innings wickets in hand, a deficit they will hope to cancel out on day three as the pitch continues to lose any semblance of pace and bounce.

Having posted 68 in 13 overs in tandem with opening partner Joe Denly, Key teamed up with No3 James Tredwell to post a further 135 in 39 overs before a Kent collapse saw them lose five wickets for 58 runs after tea.

Denly (48) and Key had batted aggressively at the start of the reply as both went after Yorkshire’s first three bowlers Matthew Hoggard, Rana Naved and Deon Kruis.

They took 12 fours from the first 12 overs bowled at them, in-form Denly plundering nine while Key notched his third with a sumptuous straight drive off Hoggard.

But just two short of a half-century, Denly went back to his 43rd ball faced, a Hoggard off-cutter, and went leg before four balls from the scheduled lunch break.

Key and No3 James Tredwell (48) survived throughout the mid-session but soon after tea Tredwell, in attempting to work leg-spinner Adil Rashid to the leg side, turned a catch via inside edge and thigh pad to short leg.

Martin van Jaarsveld’s run of big scores ended with his score on three when he had his off stump trimmed by Anthony McGrath then, three overs later, Darren Stevens propped forward to Rashid only to loop a bat-pad catch to Jacques Rudolph at first slip.

At the other end Key survived a scare on 77 when the umpires Trevor Jesty and Richard Kettleborough deliberated to rule him not out from a bat-pad chance at short leg that, judging by video evidence seen later, fell just short of the fielder.

Key reached his first three-figure score of the championship summer in 216 minutes, from 174 balls and with 13 fours, but soon afterwards he lost two more partners as the hosts continued to stumble.

Justin Kemp (12) nicked to slip on the drive against Rashid then Geraint Jones (10), half forward to an in-ducker from Naved, went leg before as ball hit pad before bat.

But Key and Azhar Mahmood (21) survived through to the close to take the side within two runs of a third batting bonus point.

The day started with Yorkshire batting, resuming on their overnight total of 359-5, they had high hopes of coasting to a fifth maximum batting bonus point but it was Kent who enjoyed the best of the morning session and Azhar Mahmood in particular, who took all five wickets to fall in a spell of 5-10 in 28 balls from the Pavilion End.

Twice dropped yesterday when in the 60s and 90s, Jacques Rudolph's four-hour stay came to an end with his score on 129 when, in attempting to leg glance against Azhar Mahmood, he got an inside edge down the leg-side through to Geraint Jones.

Mahmood was celebrating again in his next over when, having run one away from right-hander Adil Rashid (0), he found the edge to have him caught at slip by Justin Kemp to make it 384-7.

Hoggard was twice dropped on 18, firstly at point by James Tredwell then at long leg by Robbie Joseph, both times of the luckless Yasir Arafat who then saw England's ace night watchman, snick anther lifting delivery over the slip cordon for four to third man.

Hoggard's luck finally ran out with his score on 24 when he edged another Mahmood away swinger to Jones who ran across in front of slip to claim the catch.

Two balls later Rana Naved (4) opened the face of his bat in trying to run the ball down to third man and picked out Darren Stevens at fourth slip to five Kent maximum bowling points and Mahmood his second, five-wicket championship haul for Kent.

The over ended with Kruis and Tim Bresnan snatching a risky single to post their side's 400 and their fifth batting point but, 10 runs on Bresnan (10) was trapped on the back foot by a Mahmood in-ducker and the visitors were all out for 410 after 109.4 overs.

Mahmood's return of 6-55 were his best since joining Kent from Surrey in the close season.

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