STOCKTON (third day of four): Kent (17pts) beat Durham (4) by 95 runs
AS BATSMEN prospered in front of the assembled ECB pitch inspectors, the eventual verdict of that panel became increasingly anticipated. It could be: “There should be more pitches like this.”
In the end, Durham’s final innings fell away after tea, just when they had made reaching a target of 364 look a real possibility. Yet, the bat had dominated for most of the three previous sessions, especially given the astronomical 229 Kent added in the final session on Wednesday. Further perplexity was occasioned when, during the lunch interval, Chris Wood, the ECB Pitches Consultant, appeared to be complimenting the groundsman.
Resuming on 301 for seven, the serene progress of Andrew Hall and Niall O’Brien took Kent past 400 in little more than an hour. Ottis Gibson showed how much in the mind cricket can be as he started by yielding three fours and then, after the debutant, Mobeen Iqbal, had snatched two wickets, attacked O’Brien with two bouncers followed by one pitched up to snatch the final wicket — his sixth.
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Durham’s big target looked distant when, soon after lunch, they were 51 for three. It seemed more credible when Jimmy Maher and Dale Benkenstein got them to 192 without further loss by tea. There was smooth acceleration by the acquisitive Maher and the direct play in front of the wicket by his captain.
After adding 141, a direct hit removed Benkenstein when attempted a sharp single, but the most telling victory was won by Amjad Khan when he got the lift that made Maher, on 99, edge high to second slip. Kent continued with their belief in spin bowling, and indeed it did claim the final wickets fairly quickly, but it was the Danish-born Khan, who is about to qualify for England, who made the biggest impression on the much -debated surface.