Tawanda Muyeye led the Kent fightback as they were left with a huge first-innings deficit to overcome in their Vitality County Championship Division 1 match at Worcestershire on Friday.
He struck a fabulous unbeaten 80 from 84 balls in reply to leave Kent trailing by 172 with eight wickets in hand, heading into the third day.
That came after Worcestershire club captain Brett D’Oliveira fell just short of an impressive century on his return from injury.
D’Oliveira struck 97 off 90 balls, which enabled Worcestershire to establish a first-innings advantage of 276 runs.
D’Oliveira came in at 201-4 and batted with great freedom on a pitch offering assistance to the seamers.
He received excellent support in two partnerships, both worth 85 runs in 16 overs – initially from Adam Hose and then Ethan Brookes, who also played fluently in scoring his maiden half-century for Worcestershire.
A career-best 43 from No.10 Adam Finch then shepherded Worcestershire to batting points.
Rob Jones had batted with great application in the early part of the day to help lay the foundations for D’Oliveira.
Akeem Jordan, who recently was playing for Dartmouth in the Birmingham and District Premier League, finished with a maiden five-wicket haul with figures of 5-97 from 26.1 overs on his first-class debut.
Jordan said: “One thing about our guys is their heads never drop and we always believed that there was something out there, and we just kept fighting for it and ended up getting them all out.
“As the day went on, the wicket got easier to score on and we had to keep banging away on a length and, at some point, the wicket started to assist us, and then it went back flat for the batters and we really had to work hard.
“D’Oliveira made it look so easy because some of the balls were jumping and some were keeping a bit low and he was just flowing. It was good from him.
“I’m so impressed by Tawanda Muyeye. I think he is a ‘gun’ player.
“This is the first time I’ve seen him bat and he is so talented and, if he keeps playing like that, he could get a really big score tomorrow.
“We have to try and bat as long as possible, try and get a decent lead and then we can try and defend it in their second innings. You never know – cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties.
“If we get a decent lead, we may end up coming out on top.”
Worcestershire resumed on 137-2 and Jordan struck an early blow for the visitors when Gareth Roderick (63) nicked a delivery which moved away and was caught behind.
Jones looked set to complete his second County Championship 50 of a challenging season but, on 49, he fell to a superb catch by Jack Leaning.
He pushed hard at a delivery from Joey Evison (1-49) and edged to Leaning who held onto the chance at second slip at full stretch away to his right.
D’Oliveira raced to a 46-ball half-century with seven fours.
Hose, himself returning after playing for Northern Superchargers in The Hundred competition, provided the perfect foil until he tried to pull Jordan and top-edged a catch to fine leg.
Brookes helped D’Oliveira regain the momentum in completing his 50 from 59 deliveries.
D’Oliveira looked set for his century but, on 97, he attempted to cut spinner Matt Parkinson (2-65) and only picked out backward point.
His 90-ball knock contained 15 fours after another partnership of 85 runs in 16 overs.
Brookes also fell to Parkinson, although he was unfortunate as he attempted a sweep and the ball bounced up onto his elbow and then rolled onto the stumps.
Tom Taylor struck a quickfire 20 before he and Joe Leach went lbw to Jordan and Alfie Ogborne (2-87), respectively.
But Finch ensured a fourth batting point for Worcestershire when he cut Parkinson to the boundary in the 107th over.
The pace bowler lofted Jordan for a maximum over deep mid-wicket before he was bowled attempting another big hit.
Taylor almost broke through in his first over of Kent’s second innings.
Muyeye – on zero – edged just short of third slip and was then dropped at gully off the next delivery from Taylor (0-25).
But the Worcestershire all-rounder was responsible for the first Worcestershire success with the run-out of Ben Compton (0).
He pushed Joe Leach gently towards mid-off but Taylor pounced to run-out Compton at the non-striker’s end well short of his ground.
Muyeye decided attack was the best policy and his half-century contained one six and eight fours, reaching the milestone one ball faster than D’Oliveira.
But captain Daniel Bell-Drummond, who scored just five runs in a partnership of 62 with Muyeye, was bowled after offering no shot to Finch (1-19).
Leaning had a let-off on 15 when he survived a sharp caught-and-bowled chance against Brookes (0-1).
Muyeye was not deterred and continued to display a fine collection of shots, finishing the day on 80 not out.
Leaning and Muyeye took Kent to close of play with a fine partnership of 40 from 76 balls, with Kent 104-2.
