They threw away their last six wickets – and apparently their hugely promising position – for

They threw away their last six wickets – and, apparently, their hugely promising position – for just 58 runs

But they were playing Durham. In reply, the masters of self-destruction contrived to lose their first five wickets while scoring only 60. Giles’s remarkable 65 in 71 balls had brought Warwickshire within hailing distance of victory, but it wasn’t enough, and the champions’ unconvincing start to the season (won three, lost three) looked even shakier.. Another four overs went by, the 250 went up and Kent’s captain, Steve Marsh, gambled on Fleming producing the right stock ball at the right time.He did so with his fourth, which was edged to Marsh, who juggled it, but Carl Hooper held on.

When Moles was out for 76 off only 45 balls, the pair had put on 92 in 10 overs, and Warwickshire were only 54 behind.Munton came in with a runner and Giles took over as senior partner. This was a typically spiteful Edgbaston pitch, and, for a change, Warwickshire were experiencing a taste of their own medicine and clearly hating it.Headley’s over went for four, six, four, dot, six, four. Moles’s style remained unchanged – or rather, lack of style, because he had discarded the coaching manual and was trusting to his eye and his luck. Both were very good.Moles reached his 50 in 25 balls and cracked along at such a pace that hardly anyone noticed that Giles was scoring quickly too. At lunch yesterday Warwickshire were 138 for seven, 148 behind Kent, and in the members’ dining room the game was pronounced over. Andy Moles had retired hurt the night before with a badly bruised thumb, and poor Tim Munton, on his return to the side after weeks off injured, had strained his back.

The knowing members were sure that neither would bat.
Graham Welch then hit the third ball after lunch hard into the covers, where Matthew Fleming took a good diving catch That was it, surely. Kent’s players hugged each other as if it was, and Ashley Giles, at the bowler’s end, did not know whether to go or stay. For a while, no batsman appeared, and then the substantial, reassuring figure of Andy Moles appeared from the dressing room and strode to the wicket, looking not the least put out.The next over was bowled by Dean Headley, who – along with Martin McCague, who took five wickets – had caused Warwickshire’s top order batsmen acute discomfort, as balls pitching only just short of a length reared up towards the head, or shot through to the wicketkeeper. By beating the county champions by 32 runs, Kent have gone to the top of the Britannic Assurance table. Since they were bottom of it at the end of last season, this is a notable achievement, but it was not accomplished without some unexpected drama and a nerve-racking passage of play, when it looked as though Warwickshire might snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Stemp was dropped three times – on 16, 28 and 32.Following on, Yorkshire’s openers each survived the indignity of bagging a pair and initially settled well, but then David Millns removed both Martyn Moxon and David Byas in quick succession, the latter splendidly caught by Phil Simmons in the slips, before Yorkshire’s hopes of a substantial recovery were undermined first when Michael Vaughan played on to Pierson and again when McGrath and Silverwood perished in the closing overs.. The last four wickets added 188, more than doubling the score.Gough’s approach was just right, his aggression taking some of the wind from the bowlers’ sails. But he was careful to pick his shots wisely, collecting seven fours as well as a six driven back over Parsons’ head off 64 deliveries.Bevan shared with Gough a stand of 75 in 14 overs before Pearson took his third gully catch of the morning and although Peter Hartley soon followed, caught at slip after the ball had rebounded from wicketkeeper Paul Nixon’s arm, Silverwood re-established the bat’s ascendancy. Gough eventually mistimed an on-drive, scooping a catch to midwicket, but this merely introduced Stemp, who rode his luck to frustrate Leicestershire on the way to his second half-century of the season.

Soon it became still more dire as Gordon Parsons removed Craig White and Richard Blakey in his fourth and fifth overs, pushing Yorkshire into deeper trouble at 154 for six. Both fell in similar fashion, edging to gully as Parsons discovered some extra bounce.In the event, runs came from less expected sources, Darren Gough making a brisk and powerful half-century, then Silverwood and Richard Stemp combined in a partnership of 79, a record for Yorkshire’s last wicket against Leicestershire, surpassing 73 by Phil Carrick and Paul Jarvis at Leicester in 1984. The consequence is that Yorkshire, needing 339 to make Leicestershire bat again, are up against it.Michael Bevan, the Australian serving them so well this season, finished unbeaten on 45, one boundary away from becoming the first batsman this season to reach 1,000 first-class runs, but that achievement, assuming he completes it, is now likely to be incidental to a Leicestershire win that their mammoth first-innings score, the highest total conceded in Yorkshire’s history, always made likely.When they resumed in the morning, four first-innings wickets down and still 538 runs behind, Yorkshire’s outlook looked bleak. Anthony McGrath was bowled on the back foot by the off spinner Adrian Pierson, and Chris Silverwood, sent in as nightwatchman, was caught at forward short-leg off Matthew Brimson.
The latter might be judged as a wicket thrown away, given that the situation perhaps called for someone with greater experience than a 21-year-old rookie fast bowler. However, the odds are against them after Leicestershire’s spinners stuck two blows near the close. Yorkshire are engaged in a fairly hopeless damage-limitation exercise here after being toppled from the head of the championship table by Kent, seeking the draw that would limit the arrears to a single point and keep Leicestershire, for the moment, at arm’s length. This compact, hard-hitting batsman made 239 in that previous Championship game at Southampton, and yesterday became the first Derbyshire player since John Morris in 1990 to score a century in both innings.The declaration moment was neatly decided.