Dogged Warwickshire dig in

Kent 374 for 9 v Warwickshire 250
Scorecard

Wickets and boundaries were hard to come by on day three of a fluctuating County Championship Division One encounter in Canterbury where Warwickshire batted their way out of a hole to go into the final day against Kent with an overall lead of 131.

At stumps the visitors, who faced a first-innings deficit of 127, had reached 258 for 4 courtesy of three stoic knocks by captain Ian Westwood (68), England Test batsmen Ian Bell (94) and Jonathan Trott (65 not out). Though they lost Darren Maddy to the 15th ball of their reply Warwickshire batted with far more resolve second time around and, on an easing pitch, the Kent attack appeared somewhat toothless.

Having scored three from four balls Maddy shouldered arms to an Amjad Khan off cutter that held its line up the St Lawrence slope to go leg before and make it 3 for 1. That brought together Westwood and Bell for a gritty second-wicket stand of 157 in 55 overs that overhauled the deficit and took their side into a slight lead before Kent finally broke through three overs from tea through occasional offspinner Martin van Jaarsveld.

Having batted almost three hours for his 68 with seven fours, Westwood was pinned on the crease by a quick arm ball to go leg before and make it 160 for 2. Bell's painstaking 182-ball stay with 10 boundaries ended two overs after the break when he moved back and across in defence to a shooting off cutter from Amjad Khan to also fall lbw.

For much of the day Warwickshire's batsmen appeared hell bent on making amends for their first-innings misdemeanours. Content to work the ball around into the gaps, they went 41.4 overs without scoring a boundary and needed 32.1 overs to score the 50 runs that took them to 200.

Trott took almost two hours to post his dogged half-century, finally reaching the milestone with four boundaries four overs from stumps, but he lost fourth-wicket partner Jim Troughton (24) to the last ball of the day when the left-hander sparred at a Darren Stevens bouncer to be caught behind.

Kent resumed at the start of the day on 374 for 9 but added only three runs before Rikki Clarke removed Darren Stevens without addition to his overnight score of 57. Heaving across the line, Stevens went leg before to give Clarke career-best figures of 6 for 63.