Fleming flair scuppers Yorkshire hopes

Yorkshire 239 and 346 Kent 418 and 169-6 Kent win by 4 wickets

Matthew Fleming may have relinquished the captaincy of the Championship side during the winter but on this performance clearly none of the responsibility. Still a verbal presence in the dressing-room, constructive not destructive it must be added, he steered Kent to a first victory of the season with a mixture of pugnacious batting and soothing influence.

He walked, nay, befitting a former military man, marched to the crease with his side in tatters, and an out of form Matthew Walker paralysed at the other end. Chasing 168 they were 95 for 6 and treating each delivery like an unexploded mine. Not that they had succumbed to particularly good bowling and deserved to be struggling, but rather to a mix of injudicious shot selection, naïve inability to rotate the strike and the illusion of steam cooker pressure created by the fielders.

Darren Lehmann, the Yorkshire captain was the main instigator, appealing for everything that would have hit six stumps and generally making the batters feel unwelcome.

Pressure, oh that trendy buzzword of modern life, really does exist and must be made a friend.

Five batters were dismissed in nine overs and of those only Andrew Symonds had any cause for complaint. Lehmann was convinced that he had his compatriot caught at silly point and subtly made the umpire, and crowd, aware of his displeasure when it was given not out.

Next ball, Symonds padded up, another huge appeal ensued and this time the umpire concurred. Symonds stood at the crease reviewing the position of his feet before slowly trudging off, like Lehmann the ball before keen to show his disagreement.

Even so, Kent chased a low total in poor fashion and this is one of the most compelling, frustrating aspects of cricket that demonstrates the frailty of the human psyche. Batters that nonchalantly score artistic first-innings' centuries will become gibbering wrecks when asked to chase a few.

Frequently, the pitch will have deteriorated during the previous three days, but by far the biggest change will be the perception of pressure.

Why perception? Because the basic formula of scoring runs never changes, only the situations do.

Rob Key, dominant and elegant was in cruise mode as he glided the ball between fielders for seemingly easy runs but Lehmann, acknowledging his threat speared his left-arm tweakers into the rough from over the wicket. Trapped down one end, Key needed Ed Smith to rotate the strike but instead the runs ceased and the close fielders started to invade the batters' minds.

At this stage, it is a question of who blinks first – the batter by getting out or the bowler by gifting a boundary or two. Smith lost and unwittingly started the collapse that Fleming halted. Key chopped on, Nixon ridiculously tried a reverse-sweep and Mark Ealham shuffled in front of his stumps. From a position of weakness, Lehmann and his fielders had bluffed the batsmen and given themselves a good chance of a much-needed victory.

Ultimately, it was thwarted and after three consecutive defeats last season's champions are bottom, a position they will remain in unless they can post a substantial first innings score.

It can change as it did for Walker. Feeling the pressure of being in dreadful form, 73 runs from five innings, he needed a single specific target to concentrate his mind fully and remove any negative thoughts. He ignored the pressure while Fleming thrived on it and their team-mates should thank them for a vital win.