Kent v Yorkshire: Farcical ending is fitting for visitors’ first innings

Duanne Olivier, the No 11, hit a cross-batted straight drive back to the bowler Mitch Claydon who, in failing to gather cleanly, inadvertently diverted the ball on to the stumps to run-out Steve Patterson, the non-striker.

Olivier stood motionless as he surveyed the wreckage of the wicket at the Nackington Road end, while Patterson threw back his head before walking away ruefully.

It was that sort of dismissal, that sort of innings, Yorkshire all-out for a paltry 210 after Patterson won the toss on a sunkissed day.

Patterson, whose side reduced Kent to 130-4 in reply, a battling effort that kept the hosts within reach, was one of six Yorkshire players to get into the 20s and one of six who failed to get out of them too.

The highest score was 29, a dubious honour shared by Harry Brook and Jonny Tattersall.

Brook’s dismissal was one that he will not remember with fondness after he walked a long way across his stumps to Harry Podmore to be bowled around his legs.

Like his captain, Tattersall could at least claim an element of misfortune, the ball keeping low as he was trapped on the pads by ex-Yorkshire player Claydon.

But although conditions were never entirely straightforward, with a strong crosswind assisting the bowlers, it was not a day when Yorkshire’s batsmen did themselves justice against a palpably inferior attack to their own.

After handing a debut to Dom Bess, the 21-year-old off-spinner signed on a month’s loan from Somerset, Yorkshire made the worst possible start.

Adam Lyth fell to the first ball of the match, Podmore slanting a delivery across him that the left-hander edged to second slip.

Brook began promisingly, punching Matt Milnes to the offside boundary off the back foot and then steering him through the gully for four.

There is no doubting the 20-year-old’s ability, but, after Gary Ballance was caught behind from an away-swinger by Fred Klaassen, a 26-year-old Dutch international making his Championship debut, Brook made his fatal misjudgment and Yorkshire had slipped to 47-3.

Runs came quickly, but wickets kept falling, another giveaway arriving when Jack Leaning was run-out having also looked promising.

Kohler-Cadmore pushed a ball from Milnes back to the bowler, who got a hand to it and sent it away in the direction of mid-on.

Leaning was not looking at Kohler-Cadmore, though, for fear that the ball might have deflected on to his stumps at the non-striker’s end, just as it did for Patterson, and was thus unprepared when his partner called him through for a quick single.

Although Leaning did his best to scamper through and make it in time, he was beaten by a direct hit from Heino Kuhn.

Kohler-Cadmore must have felt doubly determined to make a big score after that mix-up, but, when he had reached 28 and the total was 96, he pulled Milnes down the throat of Podmore at long-leg.

When Tim Bresnan was caught at third slip for a duck in Milnes’s next over, the bounce appearing to surprise the former England man, Yorkshire were 96-6 and lunch would not have tasted to them as pleasant as breakfast.

Bess appeared after the break and treated the crowd to a counter-attacking cameo, striking four boundaries in an innings of 25 from 24 balls.

But he was squared up by a fine delivery from Milnes that took the top of off stump, and after Tattersall fell with the total on 166, Ben Coad slapped a wide delivery from Daniel Bell-Drummond to gully to leave the visitors 181-9.

Yorkshire scraped past 200 to collect a batting point, a milestone greeted with predictable ironic cheers.

Patterson’s run-out capped it all off, Milnes the most successful bowler with 3-63.

Kent lost a wicket in the fourth over of their innings when Olivier made a mess of Sean Dickson’s stumps.

Kohler-Cadmore, blessed with some of the safest hands on the circuit, helped Yorkshire back into the match with three catches in the first slip position.

First he caught Matt Renshaw low down off Coad; then he held a shin-high opportunity when Bresnan squared-up Bell-Drummond, and finally he took a tumbling effort to his left when Kuhn dabbed at Bresnan.

Zak Crawley became the only man of the day to get beyond the 20s, finishing unbeaten on 73 from 104 balls with 13 fours and Ollie Robinson undefeated on 14, their stand worth 59 in 16 overs.

Yorkshire need a good start today to put the hosts under pressure – the proverbial big first hour, no less – with Kent in a good position now to drive the game forward.