COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Edgbaston:
Warwickshire 294, Kent 37-3 (Warwicks 3pts, Kent 3pts)
Match scorecard

Botha's previous first class high score this season was 33

Ant Botha and Imran Tahir put on 118 for the last wicket as Warwickshire rallied to reach 294 all out against relegation rivals Kent at Edgbaston.

Kent seemed in control when restricting the Bears to 107-7 before Botha (76) and Tahir (69) helped Warwickshire post a respectable first innings score.

Kent could not have started any worse in reply, young paceman Chris Woakes bowling Joe Denly first ball.

With fellow opener Rob Key also going for a duck the visitors closed on 37-3.

Not for the first time this summer, Warwickshire's lower order outperformed the front-line batsmen.

It took a county best 76 by Botha to lever them beyond 200 for only the fourth time in eight home matches - and their two batting bonus points were their first since July.

For Kent it became a nightmare scenario when a dropped slip chance - after Tahir had hit 14 in the first three balls of an over from off spinner James Tredwell - ultimately cost them nearly 100 runs.

Botha, as a second spinner, has had an intermittent role this year and may not even have been in the team for this match but for an injury to fast bowler Boyd Rankin.

In helping to squeeze 187 for the last three wickets, he put on 60 in a dozen overs with Woakes (30), creating the platform for Tahir to hammer seven fours and four sixes in an unbeaten 69 from 72 balls.

Kent had seized control when medium-pacer Darren Stevens, having opened the bowling, took 3-30 in an unchanged 15-over stint up to lunch.

No-one made more than Varun Chopra's 24 as Warwickshire reached the first interval at 74-5.

Laurie Evans, a former Durham UCCE batsman signed on loan from Surrey, was given a debut after scoring a century in a second team try-out for Warwickshire.

The newcomer looked comfortable in making 15 until he was bowled by a swinging full toss from Cook and a first hint of a revival was cut short when Richard Johnson (18) fell to Azhar Mahmood.

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