Cricket: Kent make progress

KENT, who have had little success in one-day competition since the 1970s, moved into the quarter-finals of the NatWest Trophy after beating Hampshire by four wickets with a little more than 13 overs to spare at Southampton yesterday.

After being put in, Hampshire never recovered from a poor start, losing both Paul Terry and Robin Smith cheaply to the fast bowler Alan Igglesden.

Hampshire were 187 all out with Igglesden finishing with 2 for 30 from 10 overs. He was ably supported by Dean Headley, who took the wickets of Sean Morris, Kevan James and Winston Benjamin.

Hampshire's only resistance came from their captain, Mark Nicholas, whose 62 was enough to earn him the man of the match award.

He figured in the stand of 76 for the fifth wicket with Adrian Aymes, who made 34 before being run out, sacrificing his wicket to enable Nicholas to stay in.

Kent struggled against the swing of James when they chased their modest target. The left-arm seamer took 3 for 36 from 10 overs and among his victims was the West Indian Carl Hooper, who went for 21.

Graham Cowdrey prevented Kent collapsing with a solid 35 and the winning runs came from Mark Ealham after 46.5 overs.

The Somerset captain Andy Hayhurst took 4 for 29 against Yorkshire at Headingley to make his side favourites to reach the next round.

After a second-wicket stand of 100 in 26 overs between David Byas and Martyn Moxon, the home side collapsed to 215 all out with Hayhurst supporting some fine seam bowling by the England bowler, Andrew Caddick.

Byas hit 71 from 100 balls, which included one six and 10 fours, but his departure signalled a Yorkshire collapse in which they lost nine wickets for only 97 runs. Somerset scored 24 runs in reply before a thunderstorm forced the tie into a second day.

Rain curtailed play at Darlington but not before Dominic Cork underlined his recovery from a knee injury by taking 5 for 43 as Derbyshire eased into a strong position against Durham.

Cork removed both openers and mopped up the tail as Durham slipped from 164 for 2 to 278 all out. Durham had begun well with John Morris scoring 67 off 95 balls against his former county. Derbyshire were 119 for 2 after 30 overs.