Kent have plenty of work to do in their Rothesay County Championship clash with winless Glamorgan at Canterbury after a dreadful batting display on day two.
The hosts were reduced to 156-8 at the close in reply to Glamorgan’s imposing total of 549-9 declared.
Ben Kellaway hit 181 not out, the highest-ever score by a Glamorgan batter at Canterbury, as his side posted their biggest ever score against Kent.
Timm van der Gugten and James Harris then took three wickets apiece as Glamorgan rattled through Kent’s top order, at one stage reducing them to 23-5 before Chris Benjamin offered some resistance with 68 not out.
Kent head coach Adam Hollioake conceded: “It was a disappointing day. Probably didn’t bowl at our best in the game, and I think that’s given Glamorgan a bit of scoreboard pressure. Then it’s definitely a new ball wicket.
“We didn’t bowl well with either of the two new balls that we had. I feel like they’ve got their length right. They got four wickets caught short leg or off the thigh pad that have ballooned up.
“I think that’s the first I’ve ever seen that in my career, but that shows that they’ve hit the right length. The ball’s jagged from that length.
“Chris Benjamin showed that if you dig in and show a bit of resilience, you can bat out there. We just have to come back tomorrow, and try and put some partnerships together and try and minimise this deficit.”
“We’re eight down, so we’ve just got to try and draw that out as long as we can, keep them out in the field on their legs and try and minimise the deficit.
“The more time out of the game we take, then we might be looking down the line trying to force them to make a declaration, or if they think there’s not enough time, they might enforce the follow-on if we can’t get there because It’s a fair way to go to that.”
Glamorgan began the day on 389-7, with Kellaway nine runs away from a maiden century which arrived when he eased Grant Stewart to the cover boundary for three.
Andy Gorvin was on 14 when he was dropped by Benjamin off Kashif Ali and the wicketkeeper then missed a chance to stump Kellaway off Parkinson when he was on 127.
The first wicket didn’t fall until four minutes before lunch, when Gorvin hooked Matt Parkinson to the backward square leg boundary and fell for 47, caught by Stewart, to end a stand of 108.
Glamorgan were 498-8 at lunch, after which the visitors tried to up the scoring rate.
Parkinson bowled Harris for 12 as he attempted a hack, but Kellaway then hit Parkinson over cow corner for three sixes from successive deliveries, before following up with a four, taking 23 off the 131st over as the declaration came shortly after.
Harris removed opener Harry Finch lbw for four in the second over and Ben Compton was caught by Kellaway at point for seven as Kent were 12-2 in the eighth.
Skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond scratched a painful three off 32 balls before he edged Timm van der Gugten to Colin Ingram at first slip.
Tawanda Muyeye prodded at a van der Gugten delivery and was taken by Asa Tribe at short leg before debutant Ekansh Singh then went in almost identical fashion, leaving Kent 23-5 in the 15th over.
Benjamin put on 79 for the fifth wicket with Jack Leaning but their stand was broken when the latter was lbw to Asitha Fernando for 37.
Fernando’s appeal lasted for so long that he ran backwards all the way to the batter’s crease before Sue Redfern’s finger went up. Leaning clearly felt he’d hit it, but the reaction may have earned him a reprimand.
That ended the mini-revival as Stewart played on to Harris for four, but Benjamin reached his maiden Kent half-century by pushing Fernando for a single through cover.
Parkinson was dropped by Sam Northeast when he edged Harris on 11 but he went in the next over, strangled behind by Gorvin for 13. George Garrett, however, lingered for 25 balls and was unbeaten on 11 at stumps.
Report from ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
