Plunkett’s four wickets edge Yorkshire through tense tie

Yorkshire 256 for 9 (Lyth 88, Coles 3-39) beat Kent 245 (Stevens 54, Blake 50, Plunkett 4-52, Willey 3-34) by 11 runsScorecard

There is an old cricketing saw that if you want to know how good a pitch is, you need to wait until both sides have batted on it. Like most proverbs, this is a useful saying only when used carefully; trotted out uncritically, it is tripe. This close and noble match, which ended with Yorkshire looking forward to a home semi-final against Surrey, illustrated the point.

Between the two innings, as a St Lawrence ground which had brimmed with afternoon sunshine gave itself over to the gentler grace of evening, Kent’s supporters had reason to be optimistic. A Yorkshire side containing seven Test cricketers had managed no more than 256 in their 50 overs, a good score to be sure but self-evidently not the 300-plus the home fans may have feared.

Kent skipper, Sam Northeast, may even have half toyed with notions of a Lord’s final. That would have capped a great season for the still youthful-looking Northeast, who has scored runs for the fun of doing so in the Championship. He has also been appointed club captain in succession to the slightly aldermanic figure of Rob Key. Sam Weller has taken over from Mr Pickwick.

Eighteen overs into their innings the mood in the home dressing room was probably considerably less sanguine. Although 64 runs had been scored, four prime wickets had been lost, including that of Daniel Bell-Drummond, leg before to a David Willey yorker in the second over and Sam Billings, lbw on the front foot to Steve Patterson when he had made a mere single. Sandwiched between these dismissals, Northeast had gone, too, when he chipped a catch to Gary Ballance at midwicket.

Thus did one Old Harrovian send another packing, although this very posh dismissal was moderated a little by the involvement of the bowler, Liam Plunkett, he of Nunthorpe Comprehensive. Maybe we should have known then that it would be Plunkett’s night, just as it had been against Essex at the same stage of the same competition a year earlier.

Faced with Kent’s grim situation, Darren Stevens and Alex Blake resolved to die with their boots on and their magazines empty, if necessary. The fifth-wicket pair took 61 runs off the next seven overs, most of the damage being done to the spinners, Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq, both of whom were lifted for sixes into the crowd sitting …

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