Watch: Matt Parkinson produced a string of exceptional deliveries to leave his mark on a County Championship game between Lancashire and Kent.
His dismissals of Daniel Bell-Drummond and Zak Crawley stood out, with his leg-spin wizardry coming to the fore.
Lancashire piled up 506 in the first innings at Canterbury and established an early foothold in the contest. Parkinson thrived on the cushion of runs and broke the back of Kent’s reply. Kent’s openers navigated their way to 109 but when Parkinson bamboozled Crawley, the cat was set among the pigeons. The leg-spinner bowled a length delivery that the England Test opener thought would turn away. He went deep into his crease but saw the ball breeze past his back-foot shot.
A few overs later, Parkinson flighted the ball on leg stump and got it to rip past Bell-Drummond’s outside edge, with the ball then kissing the top of off stump. Tawanda Muyeye was the next to depart as he shouldered arms and was trapped lbw. The three-wicket spell triggered a collapse, with Kent getting bowled out for 260, despite registering a first-wicket stand of 109.
Parkinson got into the act in the second innings as well, picking up the wickets of Darren Stevens, Jordan Cox and Matt Milnes. The wicket of Cox, dipping and turning to beat the advancing batter and clip the bails, was another for the scrapbook.
The leggie finished with match figures of 7-158 as Lancashire wrapped up victory on the fourth evening. He is yet to play a Test match, but was in the England squad for their 1-0 defeat in the West Indies in their most recent series, with David Lloyd recently backing his claims for a red-ball spot.
Watch all of Parkinson’s wickets so far here:
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Every @mattyparky96 wicket from Kent vs Lancashire so far 😍 #LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/ULaEzKpNta
— LV= Insurance County Championship (@CountyChamp) April 16, 2022
