Kent 271 for 7 (Bell-Drummond 149, Cox 51, Barker 4-36) vs Hampshire
It is easy to forget that Bell-Drummond is still only 28. His professional debut in cricket came over a decade ago and he was just a teenager when England’s new managing director Rob Key dubbed him as a player with the potential to play 100 Tests. And even ten years on, he is still England U19’s all-time leading run-scorer.
But then the runs dried up. Whereas he scored nine first-class centuries in the first five years of his career, the following six would add just three more (including today), as his red-ball runs were replaced with white. His form with the bat mirrored the wider pattern of the domestic game, where England’s short-format batting stocks are growing deeper than ever, while anyone with a pulse and Ed Smith’s phone number got a go at the Test team’s batting order. It is a recognition of Bell-Drummond’s lack of form in 2017 (avg 24.39) and 2018 (19.00) that even from the highs of the previous years the call never came.
Nevertheless, given the clear potential Bell-Drummond had shown in the first half of his career, and the subsequent England selection policy of backing the potential of youth, you could be excused for wondering whether Bell-Drummond ever felt hard done by that the punt on potential that others have since received was never an opportunity afforded to him a few years earlier.
“I definitely do take admiration from Compton and how he’s started,” Bell-Drummond said. “It’s been unbelievable, to be honest. Maybe he expected it, but I don’t think we thought we’d signed this calibre of player. But he’s an awesome player and he’ll go from strength to strength.
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“But it just shows his ambitions and how strong he is mentally. I take a lot from that. That’s the main thing I’ve learnt. In terms of my career, I just try to take each day as it comes. I know how good I can be, but I just really want to be more consistent. I’ve done really well in white-ball cricket, so now it’s just about adding the red-ball side to it.”
Both sets of skills were on show today as Bell-Drummond played the seam of Kyle Abbott, Mohammad Abbas and Keith Barker with patience while targeting the short leg-side boundary when facing the leg spin of Mason Crane.
And for as long as Bell-Drummond was at the crease, the day looked set to be a dominant occasion for Kent, whose only brief wobbles with the bat were right at the start of the day when Zak Crawley edged behind off the bowling of Abbas and then, 100 runs later, when Compton and Tawanda Muyeye fell in quick succession.
The double breakthrough had sparked some life into Hampshire, with captain James Vince bellowing “150 for 5!” across the ground in both hope and expectation as the hosts stood at 113 for 3.
But when Bell-Drummond was given lbw off the bowling of Abbott for 149, Kent proceeded to collapse. It is the nature of the four-day game that while good things take a long time to arrive with the bat, bad things can happen very quickly. And in the final hour Kent would lose four wickets for just 26 runs as Barker struck twice with the second new ball to add to his earlier wickets of Muyeye and Compton.
“They bowled well with the second new ball so the game’s still in the balance,” Bell-Drummond said. “Obviously we’d have liked to have gone in three-, four- or five-down at the end of the day but we’re still pretty content and for the most part it was a good day.”
Cameron Ponsonby is a freelance cricket writer in London. @cameronponsonby
Source: ESPN Crickinfo