Matt Milnes registered his career-best first-class figures to inspire Kent to their first County Championship win in over a year.
Matt Milnes inspires Kent to first County Championship win in over a year
Milnes returned figures of 6-12 in the second innings after Kent set Derbyshire 384 to win at Canterbury. He removed Caleb Jewell with the last delivery of the third day before returning to pick up five more on the last day and help Kent register a big 225-run win, their first victory since beating Middlesex in April 2025.
Kent batted first in the game, but lost Ben Dawkins for six. Zak Crawley’s struggles continued, but he made 44, his top score of the ongoing County Championship season, before falling to Martin Andersson. From 72-1, Kent were soon down to 93-4 when captain Daniel Bell-Drummond and Ekansh Singh added 54 for the fifth wicket.
Bell-Drummond went on to complete a 21st first-class hundred, while wicketkeeper-batter Chris Benjamin scored a half-century, together adding 126 runs for the sixth wicket. Kent eventually finished their first innings on 352 on day one, and Derbyshire managed to remain unscathed in the remaining five overs before stumps.
Several Derbyshire batters got starts, with only No.10 Rory Haydon falling for single digits – a two-ball duck. Luis Reece top-scored with 84, while Matt Milnes and Keith Dungeon shared seven wickets among them to bowl Derbyshire out for 304, but Kent lost both Crawley and Dawkins in the final session on day two.
Match 30, Kent vs Derbyshire
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Kent were reduced to 55-5 on the penultimate day, when Benjamin, from No.7, resurrected the innings with a second ton in the format. Joey Evison scored 88 from No.8 as well, with the duo adding 184 runs for the seventh wicket as Kent were bowled out for 352. Rory Haydon picked up his first two five-wicket hauls in the format to finish with 10 wickets in the game.
Derbyshire’s chase never got going after Milnes dismissed Jewell. Keith Dudgeon then had Harry Came caught by Dawkins at gully on the fifth ball of the final day before Milnes picked up his second in the very next over to send Matthew Montgomery back. Madsen's wicket was accounted for soon after.
Also read: England great and former Test bowler combine to spin County Championship side to famous victory
Luis Reece showed some resistance to score 67, but was the last wicket to fall with Derbyshire getting bowled out for 158. Milnes had Brooke Guest, Ben Aitchinson and Haydon dismissed to finish with his best-ever first-class figures of 6-12, having bowled 15 overs.
This was the sixth five-wicket haul of Milnes' first-class career. Aged 31, he now has 179 wickets from 56 matches at an average of 28.51. His white-ball record isn't very prolific, though, having played only 18 List A and 56 T20 matches so far.
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