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Penney stamps on Kent

Warwickshire (176-6) bt Kent (170-7) by 4 wkts

Warwickshire completed a highly productive seven days as they followed County Championship successes over Derbyshire and Worcestershire with victory over Kent on a difficult Edgbaston pitch yesterday.

The decision to play on the same strip used for the Worcestershire game almost backfired as Kent's seamer Julian Thompson and slow left-armer Min Patel exploited the vagaries of a worn surface to reduce them to 77 for five.

Warwickshire were finally saved by an enterprising sixth-wicket partnership of 71 in 24 overs between Trevor Penney and Graeme Welch which took them to their second win in this season's competition.

Warwickshire's ground preparation had been hindered by a particularly wet winter and this pitch yielded runs only grudgingly. It was poor entertainment for a shivering 5,000 crowd, with no batsman making more than 39 and no bowler collecting more than three wickets.

Thompson took three for four in 10 balls and conceded only nine runs in six overs in his second spell, while Patel turned the ball out of the bowler's footmarks. But the other Kent bowlers were not so menacing and Penney and Welch accelerated confidently.

Welch was finally bowled by Andrew Symonds with Warwickshire 23 short of victory, but Penney saw them home with five balls to spare as he dabbed and nudged his way to 31 not out.

Kent found runs just as hard to come by, but they were sustained by cameo innings from Matthew Walker, Nigel Llong - playing his first senior game of the summer - and their captain, Matthew Fleming.