Daniel Bell-Drummond and Harry Finch made centuries for Kent on day two of their Rothesay County Championship Division 2 match with Northamptonshire at Canterbury on Monday.
With the track resembling a bowlers’ graveyard, and the match looking destined to end in a draw, the visitors had reached 140-1 at stumps – a deficit of 426 runs – with Ricardo Vasconcelos unbeaten on 87 and Calvin Harrison 41 not out.
Earlier, Kent declared on 566-8, Bell-Drummond hitting 158 in a stand of 208 runs with wicketkeeper-batsman Finch, who made 118.
Liam Guthrie took 3-29 but Northants’ bowlers laboured throughout with the Kookaburra ball – and Kent’s didn’t fare much better.
Finch said: “It was just nice to spend some time in the middle.
“Obviously today, we sort of reaped the benefits of the first day.
“I thought that made my job – and the jobs of the others lower down the order – that much easier.”
The visitors actually started the day with an early wicket when Joey Evison, 29 not out overnight, became the day’s first victim, going for 37. After driving Guthrie for a textbook four through mid-off, he was caught behind off the next ball.
That, however, was the high point for the visitors, whose chief tormentor was all too familiar.
Kent captain Bell-Drummond struck an unbeaten triple century at Northampton in 2023 and he reached three figures, scrambling for a single off Harrison (2-124).
Finch brought up his half-century in the next over when he went down the wicket to one-time Kent overseas spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (0-129) and hit him for four over long-on.
It was 446-5 at lunch, at which point there was a mini-rumpus on the outfield, where Northants officials were reportedly remonstrating with the match referee, allegedly because of their frustrations at having to use a Kookaburra ball on a lifeless surface.
Few others in a crowd of 2,263 were complaining.
Finch reached his sixth first-class ton when he pulled Saif Zaib (1-36) to the backward square leg boundary for four and a single from Harrison took Bell-Drummond to 150 before he finally went, caught behind trying to sweep Zaib.
On batting with his skipper, he said: “He’s class, isn’t he?
“He’s a brilliant player. He was in a really good space out there.
“He was nice and calm. Yesterday, he had to work quite hard for his runs, it looked quite hard to score but today, he looked back to being really fluent.”
Finch himself went in the next over, trying to reverse sweep Harrison and falling to a sharp one-handed grab by Justin Broad at first slip. But Kent batted on until Matt Parkinson was lbw for four trying to sweep the same bowler.
Tea was then taken and Matt Quinn (1-17), having missed almost all of last season and who had broken down nine balls into pre-season, marked his return to the first team by getting Procter caught behind in the seventh over.
Vasconcelos raced to 50 from 51 balls and, although Kent followed Northamptonshire’s lead in at least managing to slow the scoring rate slightly, it felt like the only way a batter would get out was by chucking their wicket away – neither did.
On the prospect of another hot day in the field behind the stumps, Finch insisted: “I’m looking forward to that.
“I actually know Tim Robinson from the Northants team quite well. I’ve played an stint overseas with him and I’ve got dinner with him tomorrow.
“It’ll be a day in the field but, hopefully, we can get two sets of 10 wickets.
“That’ll be nice.”
