Glamorgan beat Kent by 7 wickets

Glamorgan recorded their second emphatic win in the National League beating Kent by 7 wickets at Sophia Gardens. As in their victory yesterday against Leicestershire, the reigning League champions completed a thoroughly professional all-round performance to serve notice to the other Division One teams that they are still as adept in the short form of the game in 2003 as they were last year.

Robert Croft led from the front again, performing well with both bat and ball, as well as making some subtle bowling changes after Kent had opted to bat first. The visitors had moved onto 101-1 when Croft opted to introduce spin into the attack. He was immediately rewarded as Dean Cosker trapped Ed Smith leg before, and the left-arm spinner, bowling in tandem with Croft, proceeded to completely put the brake on the Kent batsmen.

Nine wickets fell for 91 runs as the Glamorgan attack, shrewdly led by Croft, took a firm hold on the game. Croft claimed three wickets, including that of Rob Key who was Kent`s top scorer with 68. Cosker claimed two, as did Michael Kasprowicz who showed that he had fully recovered from the niggling injury that had previously restricited the Australian seamer, returning figues of 2-25 from his 9 overs.

In reply to Kent`s 192-9, it was then the turn of Croft the batsman to put the visitors to the sword, and the acting Glamorgan captain launched the innings with a fine 59 from 63 balls. Croft received useful support from Mike Powell, adding 108 in 19 overs for the second wicket - a record in League games between the two counties. Powell hit an attractive 58, before being stumped by Kent`s Welsh wicket-keeper Geraint Jones, and then Matthew Maynard and David Hemp saw the Welsh county home with 8.4 overs and 7 wickets in hand to make it two out of two so far this season for the Dragons.