Dudgeon seven-for gives lift-off to Hollioake's Kent regime
Three quick wickets on third morning complete emphatic 145-run victory at Wantage Road
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay06-Apr-2025
Keith Dudgeon completed a seven-wicket haul on debut•Getty Images
Kent 231 (Muyeye 72, Leaning 40, Weatherall 3-32) and 171 (Evison 52, Compton 36, Weatherall 3-38) beat Northants 143 (Keogh 64, Singh 4-35) and 114 (Bartlett 60*, Dudgeon 7-36) by 145 runs Kent seamer Keith Dudgeon produced career-best figures of seven for 36 to wrap up his side’s Rothesay County Championship Division Two victory over Northamptonshire just half an hour into the third morning.The 29-year-old South African, making his debut in English cricket, rattled through the last three Northamptonshire wickets to secure a 145-run success – only Kent’s second red-ball win in their last 20 games.It took Kent only seven overs to complete their win at Wantage Road, with the home side bowled out for 114 in their second innings as George Bartlett was left unbeaten on 60.Resuming on 54 not out, Bartlett did his best to farm the strike and take the odd single but he could not protect the tail for long and Dudgeon struck in his third over of the morning to take his tally of wickets to five.Dom Leech, attempting to fend off a short delivery, could only send it looping into the gloves of Harry Finch – and Liam Guthrie departed in Dudgeon’s next over, bowled off his pads for a duck.The South African completed Kent’s victory – their third successive red-ball win over Northamptonshire – just two balls later, uprooting Raphy Weatherall’s off stump with a fizzing yorker.It meant victory at the first attempt for Kent’s new head coach, Adam Hollioake.”It’s nice to get it done in what’s effectively two days,” he said. “It’s a low scoring shoot-out so there’s always times in the game where there’s a lot of pressure.”When it’s 200 plays 200 plays 140, or what have you, every run is hard fought for so you have to show a lot of character. This is a young, inexperienced side but the character they showed was really pleasing.”On Dudgeon’s starring role, Hollioake added: “He’s a great signing we’ve got here at Kent. What an impact – it’s a dream start to his Kent career.”He’s popular in the changing room already, he’s a lovely guy and you can just feel the enthusiasm and aggression coming off him, that’s what we need.”Darren Lehmann, Northamptonshire’s new coach, was less impressed with the result.”That was disappointing with the bat and the boys have got to take some accountability,” he said. “It wasn’t a two-and-a-half day wicket, I thought the groundsman did a really good job – that for me was a nice four-day wicket, more of a 250 wicket in each innings.”I think both sides batted badly, but Kent probably bowled a bit better than us. We should probably have limited them to 180 and dropped a few catches, but we fought back beautifully yesterday.”I thought (Rob) Keogh was excellent first innings and (George) Bartlett was great today, that number three spot was up for grabs and he’s really taken it.”We’ve got some work to do with the bat but we’ve got to change our mindset and adapt to conditions better than we did, we had three blokes that let the ball go and didn’t play a shot, Bats cost about 500 quid – you’ve got to start using them!”