‘It was not good enough’

Kent head coach Matt Walker admitted his side are suffering from a lack of confidence after a two-day thrashing at Glamorgan.

The County Championship clash lasted a little more than five sessions as Kent were skittled out for 74 in their second innings before losing by 10 wickets as the hosts needed just 16 runs to win.

Walker fumed: “It was not good enough over the day and three quarters for which the game lasted.

“It wasn’t an easy pitch to play on and when you look at the batting that was reflected by the scores. “Regardless of the pitch we have to be better than that and we didn’t find the answer. Some of the boys will look back on good balls which got them out, but we have to better.

“Two poor batting innings on good pitches leads to a lack of a confidence and it’s difficult to find a performance on a pitch like this.

“Glamorgan bowled very well. Michael Hogan was outstanding at time. It always looks bad when you lose a game by 10 wickets.

“We haven’t played well in the last three weeks and this result typifies that. Some of our players aren’t performing to the levels they can.”

Kent’s batting looked to have turned a corner after they advanced to 88-1 shortly before lunch on day one. Daniel Bell-Drummond (31), Jordan Cox (30) and Zak Crawley (33) all failed to build on good starts but of more concern will be the return of just 10 runs each in the match for Joe Denly and Jack Leaning.

Walker added: “We were very poor. It was not good enough in any aspect. To go from 88-1 to 138 all out is not good enough.

“It’s hard to put my finger on why, but we’ve had too many days like this already this season.

“Everyone is working hard, but we are just not getting it right on the pitch. I remember from being a player it’s difficult to get out of a bad spot.

“We have to get out of it quickly, but we won’t hit the panic button.”

Darren Stevens marked his 45th birthday last Friday by completing a haul of 5-53 as Glamorgan were restricted to 197 in their first innings after previously reaching 120-3. To add to Kent’s misery, Heino Kuhn suffered a recurrence of his calf injury. Kent face Yorkshire at Headingley from Thursday.