Loye and Law add to Kent's struggles

Lancashire 347 & 334 Kent 267 & 123-4

Tomorrow cannot come quickly enough for Kent. That is when Andrew Symonds, their full-time registered overseas player arrives in this country. They need him. And not only him.

The county is now contemplating signing up another foreigner, although the who and the what has still to be worked out. When the Queenslander gets here he will be asked for his thoughts.

Ideally Kent would prefer a bowler. They could keep Greg Blewett, re-registering him as their official second overseas man, but while his batting has been solid enough his bowling is far more limited. A measure of his contribution is that he is the first overseas player not to have been capped by the county.

While the Kent upper-order could do with an injection of aggression from Symonds, his bowling, be it his off-spin or his seamers is not exactly penetrative.

It is a wonder that Kent allowed Lancashire to snap up Carl Hooper as a temporary overseas replacement, because the West Indies all-rounder did Kent proud in his five seasons between 1992 and 1998. He scored 6,714 runs at an average of 50.48 - more than any other Kent player, overseas or native, has ever managed.

Not that his return has been marked by any great feats. He fell two short of a half-century yesterday, casually top-edging a one-handed sweep to short-leg to become one of off-spinner James Tredwell's four victims.

Although he still made a significant contribution to the likely downfall of Kent, helping Lancashire to set a daunting 415 runs to win, the bulk of the hard work had already been carried out by Mal Loye and Stuart Law earlier in the day.

They added a further 61 runs for the third wicket taking their stand to 136. Loye was the first to go, slicing a ball from Alamgir Sheriyar out to Ed Smith on the cover boundary. The former Northamptonshire batsman was 14 short of three figures.

Law followed eight overs later top-edging an attempted hook off Martin Saggers to be caught in the deep. Andrew Flintoff then joined Hooper and the pair entertained with a 64-run partnership that pretty well ensured a struggle for Kent.

Struggle they duly did. Although Smith compiled a patient 103-ball half century, underlining his recent return to form, he fell before the close, along with three others and when they trudged off Kent were still 292 runs away from an unlikely victory.