Ekansh Singh impressed with bat and ball as Kent continue to hold the upper hand against Durham in the County Championship at Beckenham.
Kent recovered from a dismal start to day two to post maximum batting points and then took five Durham wickets before rain curtailed the day’s play at 5.40pm.
Singh finished unbeaten on 66 as Kent made 523 all out and then returned 2-32 with the ball as the visitors closed on 173-5.
He said: “We batted really well and now we’ve got the five down, I think they’re 350 behind or something, so we’re in a really strong position.
“It does always make you a little bit nervous when you see three wickets fall that quickly. I think for me, especially, I was thinking about trusting my technique and everything that I’ve worked on and not really getting too far ahead of that.
“There’s still loads of time in the game and I was just focusing on playing each ball on its merit and trusting my instincts. There is a bit of tennis ball bounce, some of them seem to skid through and some of them are a bit more slow off the deck, but that’s about it.”
Resuming on 385-4, Ben Raine bowled opener Ben Dawkins for his overnight score of 180 in the first over of the play.
Matthew Potts (6-92) struck twice in the next over to leave Kent on 389-7, removing Chris Benjamifor seven and Matt Milnes for four – both caught in the slip cordon.
Singh was joined by Keith Dudgeon and the pair put on 108 for the eighth wicket. Singh had a reprieve when he miscued a short ball from England Test captain Ben Stokes and was caught in the covers, saved by the umpire’s call for a no ball.
Stokes’ introduction had helped Kent reach maximum batting bonus points but the partnership was broken in the final over before lunch when Dudgeon succumbed to Durham’s short-bowling approach, falling to Potts on 44.
Steady progress after lunch saw James Taylor (10) help nudge Kent beyond 500 before he gave Potts his five-fer.
Singh hit Callum Parkinson for six and took the score to 523 before Matt Parkinson – who failed to score off 12 deliveries from his brother – went for a duck, caught in the slips by David Bedingham off Potts for a duck.
Durham lost new England opener Emilio Gay for a six-ball duck when he played on to Matt Milnes.
Singh trapped Alex Lees in front for 31 and it was 65-3 two overs later when the teenager struck again.
Will Rhodes, a substitute for the injured Ben McKinney, came in at three but he departed for 19 when caught at gully by Dudgeon.
Graham Clark edged behind for five but it was Bedingham (72 not out) who looked most comfortable, racing to a half-century courtesy of a wayward opening over from Dudgeon that went for 16.
Bad light after tea saw Kent turn to the part-time spin of Tawanda Muyeye but when the light improved, Milnes was back in the attack and he had former Kent man Ollie Robsinon caught in the gully for 27.
That saw Stokes come to the middle, by which time the crowd was barely 200. He survived without alarm for 20 minutes before the threatened rain finally arrived to force the players off.
