Photo: Collected
Kent have beaten Worcestershire by 84 runs in the 42nd match of County Championship Division 2 on the back of Bangladeshi pacer Hasan Mahmud’s excellent bowling performance. Hasan bagged 7 wickets for 119 runs in the whole match.
Coming in to bat first after losing the toss at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, Kent were all out for 238 on the very first day. In reply, Worcestershire’s first innings stalled at 217, giving Kent a lead of 21 runs. In this innings Hasan bowled 18 overs and took 4 wickets for 68 runs.
In the second innings, Kent scored 358 riding on Sam Northeast’s superb century of 132 runs. This set Worcestershire a big target of 380 runs to win.
In reply, although captain Brett D’Oliveira made a century, remaining unbeaten on 103, Worcestershire were all out for 295. In this innings Hasan claimed 3 wickets for 51 runs in 20 overs. Besides, Matt Milnes and Keith Dudgeon took 3 wickets each for Kent.
Hasan had claimed 12 wickets in two matches for Kent in the County Championship last June; of which he took 9 wickets in his debut match itself and 3 wickets in the next match. Alongside this, he became player of the match by taking 9 wickets in Darwin in the first Test of the Australia tour last month, making a big contribution to Bangladesh’s historic 9-wicket victory.
Returning to the county again after the Australia series, this right-arm pacer played the key role in Kent’s victory by maintaining that consistency with the ball. Thanks to this success, Kent have moved up to second place in the table with 170 points from 11 matches. Durham are at the top of the list with 210 points, having played the same number of matches.
