But some determined late-order batting gave a final twist to a compelling match as Blackwell finished on 27 not out and Caddick was unbeaten on 21 when the winning runs were hit.Kent’s left-arm spinner Min Patel worked hard to try to thwart the hosts, sending down 36 overs for 3 for 43. But there was not enough in the pitch for the seamers to allow Kent to force victory, despite a morning session in which they claimed three wickets.The Somerset captain Jamie Cox was the first to go, bowled around his legs out of the rough by Patel for 43 to leave the total 68 for 4. That became 78 for 5 when Peter Bowler, who had just cut Mark Ealham for four, fell to the next delivery as David Fulton held a bat-and-pad catch at short mid-wicket.Rob Turner followed with the score on 97, with Fulton again the catcher at silly mid-off as the wicketkeeper-batsman stretched forward to Patel.Resuming after lunch, Kent looked to be closing in on a win when Keith Parsons was caught behind attempting to force Ealham off the back foot. Graham Rose, batting with a runner because of a hamstring problem, battled away stoically for 18 before playing across a straight ball from David Masters and falling lbw. That was 152 for 8, and in came Caddick to counter-attack, sweeping Patel over mid-wicket for six.He and Blackwell played with great common sense and sound shot selection to inflict Kent’s first Championship defeat of the season. Somerset took 17 points and Kent five from a match that provided absorbing cricket throughout.No play was possible on the third day of the Second Division match at Horsham due to steady drizzle following a morning downpour, where Sussex have reached 284 for 9 in reply to Middlesex’s first-innings total of 370.The blank day was particularly frustrating for Phil Tufnell, the Middlesex and England left-arm spinner, who needs one more victim to reach 900 wickets in first-class cricket.The promising West Indies left-hander Wavell Hinds was due to have an X-ray on his injured ankle last night to determine whether the injury he sustained in Cardiff is serious enough to rule him out of the first Test.The West Indies’ management had hoped the 23-year-old Jamaican would respond to overnight treatment after being hit while fielding at silly point during the tourists’ 20-run victory over Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens on Thursday..

For David Graveney and his selection panel, the two-Test series against Zimbabwe has posed more questions than it has answered. One stupendous performance at Lord’s, followed by a palsied effort at Trent Bridge, does not approach the consistency those involved crave, and England will go into the Test series against West Indies at Edgbaston next week uncertain of their real worth. For David Graveney and his selection panel, the two-Test series against Zimbabwe has posed more questions than it has answered. One stupendous performance at Lord’s, followed by a palsied effort at Trent Bridge, does not approach the consistency those involved crave, and England will go into the Test series against West Indies at Edgbaston next week uncertain of their real worth.
Apart from the state of Michael Atherton’s colitis – not yet thought bad enough to prevent him playing for Lancashire tomorrow – chief of the concerns must be the England captain’s form with the bat.Following his second innings duck in the Test, Hussain, along with eight of his side, took themselves off to play for their counties.

It did not work, at least not for Hussain, and another duck for Essex means his tally for the season now stands at 95 runs from eight first-class innings.According to Graveney, Hussain is not troubled by his run of low scores. “You don’t simply lose it overnight and there is no doubting his class,” he said.While this is undoubtedly true, no captain feels entirely comfortable when his form has dipped and Hussain will find Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Reon King and Franklyn Rose only too pleased to try and keep it that way.Just as likely is that the slump will end. Hussain tends to feed off aggression and he will probably find the quicker bowling much more to his liking than Zimbabwe’s motley assortment of naggers and nigglers.Another who struggled was Nick Knight, whose weakness against balls shaping into him may not be as exposed against West Indies, who tend to run the ball across left-handers.For Knight, who took Michael Vaughan’s place after the Yorkshireman broke his finger, the next 24 hours will be an anxious time, particularly after Vaughan scored a fluent 94 in his first match back.Although one of those centrally-contracted, the selectors will probably want Vaughan to spend more time in the middle before recalling him to England’s middle-order.The answer to beating the West Indies normally lies in the margins and England will be pleased that Chris Schofield’s second Test innings was a maiden half-century. As England’s sole front-line spinner, Schofield is likely to be joined in the squad by Robert Croft.The West Indies’ batting order is full of left-handers and Croft should find himself in favour. His main rivals as off-spinner are Graeme Swann and Peter Such though, with the latter unfairly consigned to the Essex Second XI, the Welshman is effectively unchallenged.With a highly vocal crowd, England normally play well at Edgbaston, having won three of their last four Tests there.