Goodwin displays value of application

It was a day riddled with puzzles, the chief one of which was how Kent could have fallen so woefully short of Sussex's first- innings total, and how Sussex could subside quite so tamely as well, second time around.

On paper these are teams stuffed with run-makers, yet yesterday not one of them really got going. The pitch might be termed a slave-driver, in that batsmen have to work hard for their runs, but as Sussex's Murray Goodwin proved late in the day, sizeable scores were there for the taking if the batsmen applied themselves.

Goodwin who had looked in danger of running out of partners as his century loomed – the acting Kent captain Mark Ealham picking up three wickets in four overs, including breaking a partnership of 82 between Goodwin and Robin Martin-Jenkins – finally succumbed and heaved across the line to the last ball of the day bowled by James Tredwell and departed leg before four runs short of the mark.

It was so similar to events earlier, when just two Kent batsmen, Greg Blewett and Matthew Walker, made any impression. They had compiled a careful 76 runs for the fourth wicket when, in the seventh over of the day, things became a little confused.

The left-hander Walker played a ball from James Kirtley in to the covers and they took a single. A fine throw from Kevin Innes hit the stumps at the striker's end, then rebounded and shot off towards the other boundary. Seeing another run there and unsure that the ball would reach the rope, Walker and Blewett decided on a second run and set off, but before the run was completed the ball crossed the boundary.

The umpire John Hampshire signalled five runs, but then came the confusion because Walker should by rights have gone back to the non-striker's end, but was told that he must stay where he was. The Sussex captain Chris Adams queried it but appeared to be overruled by Hampshire and two balls later an unsettled Walker edged Kirtley to Richard Montgomerie at first slip.

That disturbed Blewett as well and the Australian departed in Kirtley's next over, caught behind. He was quickly followed by Geraint Jones, done by a Jason Lewry inswinger and thereafter the Kent innings petered out.

But Alamgir Sheriyar early on and the admirable off-spinner Tredwell at the end of the day made life awkward for Sussex and had it not been for Goodwin they would have been in trouble. As it is the lead of 268 is not as secure it might have been. There is a glimmer of hope for a more disciplined Kent side.

* Jon Dakin snapped up three wickets on a rain-affected day at Grace Road to take his match haul to four and ruin his former county's hopes of a match-winning lead over Essex in the First Division. Dakin finished with 4 for 54 as Leicestershire slipped to 185 for 7, still needing four more runs to go ahead of Essex.