RESULT
Beckenham, May 24 - 27, 2015, LV= County Championship Division Two
282 & 204
(T:195) 292 & 196/7

Surrey won by 3 wickets

Report

Coles happy at home as Kent edge day

Surrey 250 for 8 (Davies 45, Wilson 42, Stevens 3-47) trail Kent 282 by 32 runs
Scorecard
At the start of 2013, two young English cricketers were sent home from a Lions tour to Australia having defied a written warning by continuing to visit late-night bars. In the age of uber-professionalism England were faced with the spectre of two squandered talents.
In the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's, the first player sent home - one Ben Stokes - has marked himself out as a cricketer who could not only balance the England side but could reconnect the team with the public. Set against a febrile Lords, a crisp day at the outground of Beckenham was rather less glamorous. But there was enough here to suggest that Matt Coles might yet join Stokes in the Test side.
While Stokes responded magnificently to the ignominy of being sent home from the Lions tour - within a year he had scored a Test century in the cauldron of the WACA - Coles' riposte was rather less convincing. By the end of the 2013 season he had moved to Hampshire, initially on loan before signing a three-year contract. Just a year in, he was released by mutual consent. Hampshire said that "he has not settled as he, or we would have liked" although, with 41 first-class wickets at 28.41, Coles had still made a significant contribution to promotion.
And so Coles returned to Kent. He does not turn 25 until tomorrow, but some thought he had a career and reputation to rebuild. Even in six weeks, he has already gone a long way to doing that.
His performance today added to the fine early impression Coles has made returning to his local team. It would be easy to call him a reinvigorated cricketer, and there is some truth in that, but Coles already has first-class pedigree that few of his age can match: 223 wickets at a smidgeon under 29 each.
He combines an economical run-up with a strong muscular action, and bowled with vim throughout the day, as hostile with the second new ball in the afternoon gloom as he was with the first in the morning sunshine. Coles' perseverance might have merited more reward than the two wickets he took in the day - Rory Burns driving at a ball angled across him, and Gary Wilson nicking an away swinger with the second new ball - but he had again marked himself out as Kent's attack leader. In his sixth Championship game of the season, Coles already has 28 wickets at 24.75 apiece.
Coles' efforts underpinned a commendable day's work from Kent, who married an unrelenting line outside offstump with intensity in the field. This was not a day of idyllic outground weather, but a distinct chill and intermittent cloud cover provided circumstances for Darren Stevens to yet again thwart Surrey's strokemakers. His undemonstrative virtues, nibbling the ball late at a pace that would not disturb motorway speed cameras, were enough to claim nine wickets in Kent's victory at Guildford last season and 7 for 21 at Canterbury four years ago.
If this effort was less spectacular, Stevens still had the satisfaction of three wickets in 18 frugal overs. He even had the thrill of removing Kumar Sangakkara who got a leading edge to mid-off and, visibly aghast, readied himself to walk off even before the catch was taken. Jason Roy, who punched straight to mid-on, and Dominic Sibley, who nicked to slip, both followed.
At 20 Sibley is a child of the T20 age, but he does not bat like it. Kevin Pietersen's replacement at No. 4 in Surrey's batting line-up is another tall right-hander, but where Pietersen's first instinct is to attack, Sibley's is to protect his wicket from harm. He took 147 balls over his 41, displaying a resolve that many of his teammates would have benefited from.
When Sibley was dismissed, it left Surrey 170 for 7 and facing the prospect of conceding a lead close to three figures. The circumstances demanded calm resolve, and that was just what Gary Wilson and Gareth Batty, attacking spin judiciously and harassing the field, provided. Surrey were even spying a lead when bad light curtailed the day's final 18 overs leaving spectators to moan "It was a lot darker than this yesterday".

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LV= County Championship Division Two
TEAMMWLDPT
SURR16817264
LANCS16718254
ESSEX16655200
GLAM16448183
NHNTS163310180
GLOUC16556177
KENT16475161
DERBS16376153
LEICS16295118