Beyond the boundary: Kent's Darren Stevens writes exclusively for the KM Group
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Geraint Jones’ knock against Somerset
last week was awesome, but I couldn’t understand why they didn’t
make a game of it and give us something to chase.
The first three days was good cricket,
but it was no entertainment for a big last day Festival crowd.
They came out second dig, looking to
play, and we thought we are in a game here. Then they shut up shop,
we got a few wickets, and Marcus Trescothick and Craig Kieswetter
ended up getting to 130 in something like 50 overs.
Even if they had gone at three an
over, they would have been close to 200 going into the final day,
looking to get to 350, with 50 or 60 overs left in the game, and
saying to us have a go if you want to.
It would have given them time to use
their left arm spinner Murali Kartik and get close to the second
new ball.
I think we should have sorted out some
sort of finish, we are not going to harm them, we can’t catch them
in the table. I thought they batted on too long in the game at
Taunton, but this was embarrassing. They could have been second or
third right behind the leaders, now they are fourth going into this
week’s game against Hampshire, and I was really disappointed by the
way they went about it.
Jonesy’s was a great knock, and when I
was in with him the plan was to knuckle down and build a
partnership.
Sadly I got out to a great return
catch by Peter Trego. His innings though just blossomed the longer
it went on, and his last 80 runs came off only 40 or 50 balls, and
he played brilliantly. Now we want Keysy, Joe or Sam to get a
really big score as well.
I was so pleased for Malinga Bandara
getting that five-for against my old team Leicestershire on
Sunday.
OK, it was a spin friendly pitch, but
it was great reward for a player who works so hard on his game.
The supporters might feel they haven’t
seen the best of him, and some have been giving him a bit of stick,
but they don’t see what he does in practice, training with the
keepers and Farby working on different things.
The boys have got over a week off
before we play Lancashire and we have had to move all our gear out
of the dressing room as England and Sri Lanka under-19s are at
Canterbury this week. Some of the boys are having a few days away,
but it’s come at a good time.
We are happy with the way we are
playing, having beaten Essex, and there were only a couple of hours
against Somerset when we weren’t in front, and that’s when Arul
Suppiah and James Hildreth were together.
The 10 points put us above Essex, who
lost again at Southend, but there is still plenty of cricket left,
and we want to finish the season strongly.
Thursday, August 12 2010
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