Email Us Forum Mail Article Print Article

Kent Cruise To Easy Victory Over NZ

Monday, May 17 2004

Day 4 - Kent Cruise To Easy Victory

Kent entered the game looking to protect their unbeaten record against New Zealand which currently stands at 3 wins and 6 draws out of the 9 games played, and within a session and a half they had improved on those figures thanks to a fantastic century from Rob Key, his second of the match.

Starting the day on 24/0 Kent wasted little time in wrapping up an easy 9-wicket victory over the tourists with Rob Key hammering his second century of the match.

Rob Key and David Fulton wasted little time in knocking the further 165 required runs to win despite Chris Carins best efforts in rotating the bowlers around, and both batsman went past their half centuries midway through the morning session but it was Key who was looking in ominous touch on a wonderful surface for batting.

After the pair had passed their individual 50's it was Key that decided to push the scoring along and again it was the poor Vettori who was at the brunt of the assault. Key used his feet well to strike the left-arm spinner to the cover rope at will.

It wasn't just Vettori who was in danger as Key launched him into the balcony of the Kent dressing room to move into the 80s, and just wake up any of the players that were enjoying a spot of sunbathing in the beautiful sunny conditions.

At lunch Kent were within 30 runs of victory with Key just six runs short of a majestic hundred and his second of the match.

Kent soon knocked off the remaining runs after the lunch interval despite losing their captain who miscalculated his charge down the track to the less than part-time bowler Mark Richardson, McCullum completing the easy stumping.

Rob Key kept his head though and saw his team home with his second century of the match coming from just 126 balls and including 15x4's and 1x6 to just give the England selectors a slight nudge should any of the current squad pick up an injury or fall out of form.

Key was joined at the middle by Ed Smith who only needed only to take a single from his eight balls faced as Key hit the winning runs with a slog-swept four and to take him onto 117*.

Kent wrapping up an easy nine-wicket victory just half an hour after lunch and leaving the tourists a few things to think about ahead of the first test next week.

In hind sight though disappointed at losing the game the tourists would have probley been very happy at getting a highly competitive match and all players getting a strong work load rather than turning up and completing a easy win inside two days against a bunch of youth players so often seen in these games.

New Zealand ahead of the 1st Test will need to focus on the bowling side of things as for the whole match nobody really troubled the Kent batsman on a flat batting track (especially Vettori) but Lord's normally has a lot more grass and movement early in the season. New Zealand's only other major concern was how they collapsed in the second innings and if England get a sniff like they did in the West Indies then low scores could be on the card but in general the batting looks in good touch.



Match Summary:

New Zealanders 409 & 211

Kent 432/9d & 189/1 - Key 117*, Fulton 67

Kent Won By 9 Wickets

Cricket Web Man Of The Match - Robert Key (Kent)



Match 100's

* M Papps 100 (207) in 235 mins, 15x4

* R Key 100 (111) in 160 mins, 18x4

* G Jones 100 (100) in 181 mins, 11x4, 5x6

* R Key 100 (111) in 126 mins, 15x4, 1x6


Previous Day's Reports

* Day 1 - Match Report
* Day 2 - Match Report
* Day 3 - Match Report

Posted by Richard