Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
County’s early consistency delights Walker
‘The young blokes are driving me every day. . . if I slacken off they’re going to take my spot’ FIXTURES
The 6ft 4in paceman says he loves being a mentor to Kent’s younger bowlers – a role he hasn’t necessarily had at his two previous clubs.
He said: “My responsibility at the other counties (I played for) was never that because we had so many Test bowlers, so to come down here where it is a younger group and have that senior role is something that I’ve loved. Just them being Matt Walker says Kent pretty much got everything right as they maintained their impressive start to the season with a 226-run victory over Sussex at Hove. The win, their second in as many games, put them among the early pacesetters in Specsavers County Championship Division 2 and head coach Walker said their consistency levels so far have been first-rate. He added: “It was always going to be a tough game of cricket against Sussex away. They are a fine side and probably one of the favourites to go up in this division, so to come here and play how we did over the course of four days made me happy. “It was another good all-round performance. We delivered with the bat and our bowling was excellent.” Walker said he felt the period at the end of the second day when Kent attempted to build on a slender 13-run first innings lead was important. He said: “That second evening when we batted for about 20 overs was a quite a crucial period. We could have been three or four down perhaps if they got it right and we played poorly but we played brilliantly. “Dan (Bell-drummond) and Sean (Dickson) gave us great start which then gave us the chance to express ourselves.” Fortunes over the first two days had fluctuated with Kent going from 116-2 to 152- 6 before rallying to total 304 after electing to bat. Opener Dickson and Darren Stevens both made 68, with the latter sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 123 with South African Wayne Parnell, who contributed an unbeaten 51 on his first appearance since re-signing for the county. Jofra Archer was the standout bowler for the home side, returning career-best figures of 7- 67 from 23.3 overs, while Ajmal Shahzad took 3-91 from 21. A record last-wicket stand of 99 between Ben Brown (90) and Archer (60 not out) helped Sussex total 291 (Parnell 3- 48, Mitch Claydon 4-87, Matt Coles 3- 81). However, Dickson (89) then claimed his second half-century of the contest before Sam Northeast (173 not out) and Stevens (71 not out) added 161 unbroken to take Kent to 413-5 KENT’S NEXT FIVE GAMES Apr 21 Derbyshire (Canterbury)...cc2 Apr 27 Hampshire (Canterbury)... RLC May 2 Somerset (Taunton) ........... RLC May 5 Sussex (Canterbury) ......... RLC May 7 Middlesex (Canterbury) ... RLC Key: CC2 = Specsavers County Championship Division 2, RLC = Royal London One Day Cup
declared in their second innings. Bad light cut day three short by 24 overs but with Stevens (5-51 from 15 overs) to the fore, Kent made light work of the Sussex top order on the final morning as they lost six wickets for 24 runs in just 12 overs and were eventually 200 all out. Coles claimed 3- 44 from 10 overs, while Brown again proved the hardest to budge, making an unbeaten 69. Kent, who picked up 22 points, return to Canterbury on Friday for the start of a four-day game with Derbyshire.