LV COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Canterbury:
Warwickshire 250 & 327 beat Kent 377 & 156 by 44 runs
Warwickshire 21 pts, Kent 7 pts
Match scorecard

Imran Tahir took his season's haul of Championship wickets to 19

Warwickshire leg spinner Imran Tahir and paceman Chris Woakes proved the key performers as they bowled the Bears to victory against Kent at Canterbury.

Having resumed on 259-4, Warwickshire reached only 327 in their second innings, setting Kent 201 to win.

But, having been well set on 114-3, Kent collapsed to 156 all out, Tahir leading the way with four wickets.

Woakes (3-43) took the final Kent wicket as the Bears claimed a second successive Friday evening victory.

Only eight overs remained on an action-packed final day in which 16 wickets fell before Warwickshire's win was secured, having needed less than four hours to skittle their hosts.

The final day started with a flurry of Warwickshire wickets as, with Jonathan Trott adding only a single to his overnight 65, Kent mopped up the Bears' last six for just 69 to find themselves batting again five minutes before lunch. But the list of scalps was far from over.

Set to chase an appealing 201 in 68 overs, Kent made a dismal start when Woakes removed Joe Denly's middle stump second ball. Then, having lunched, Geraint Jones (12) fished outside off to be caught behind, before home skipper Rob Key (22) was trapped on the back foot by Rikki Clarke - one of 17 lbw victims in the match.

Kent then regrouped with a fourth-wicket stand between Sam Northeast and Martin van Jaarsveld, adding 63 in 18 overs.

But Northeast's removal for 26 by Imran sparked a remarkable collapse as Kent snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Van Jaarsveld's resistance ended for 59 after almost two hours when he fell to Darren Maddy and, four balls later, James Hockley had his off-stump feathered by a leg-cutter to make it 128-6.

Needing 70 off the final 20 overs, with four wickets still intact and at an asking rate of only 3.5 an over, Kent still had a decent chance. But the task proved beyond them as Imran and Woakes ran through the tail.

Matt Coles and Darren Stevens inexplicably holed out in the deep, Simon Cook became the final lbw victim and last man Makhaya Ntini completed a miserable home debut by having his middle stump plucked out for a third ball duck, Woakes ending the Kent innings as he had begun it.

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