Kent spinners overcome late flourish to seal innings victory over Northamptonshire

Kent 621 (Bell-Drummond 300*, Russell 6-175) beat Northamptonshire 237 (Keogh 97, Agar 5-63) and 369 (White 59, Keogh 57, Procter 52, Denly 4-164, Qadri 3-51) by an innings and 15 runs

Kent’s spinners lastly overcame a late flourish from the Northamptonshire tail to wrap up an innings victory at Wantage Highway and climb to eighth place within the LV= Insurance coverage County Championship Division One desk.

The Northamptonshire pair each registered career-best performances in first-class cricket, with Sanderson hitting 46 earlier than White, batting at No. 10, hammered a maiden half-century from 68 balls.

He was final man out for 59 to seal Kent’s first Championship victory for the reason that opening spherical of the marketing campaign, after they defeated the identical opponents by seven wickets at Canterbury.

As that they had finished for a lot of the earlier afternoon, Kent initially stored religion with an all-spin assault – which paid off after simply 10 balls when Denly had Saif Zaib snapped up at brief leg with out including to his in a single day 43.

Tom Taylor displayed attacking intent, clubbing each Denly and Jack Leaning to the leg-side boundary and Lewis McManus tried to observe swimsuit as he latched onto an extended hop from Qadri, solely to pick the sq. leg fielder.

Taylor discovered an sudden ally in Sanderson, who batted with freedom and rattled up a string of boundaries of their energetic partnership of 38, prompting Kent to take the brand new ball and entrust it to their seamers.

It made little distinction to Sanderson, who thrashed Arshdeep Singh twice to the quilt fence, however Wes Agar duly offered the breakthrough – albeit in uncommon style, deflecting Sanderson’s drive onto the stumps to expire Taylor on the non-striker’s finish.

Nevertheless, the eighth-wicket partnership was surpassed by the ninth, with White slamming Denly again over his head for 4 and unveiling a hardly ever seen vary of pictures, together with the reverse sweep, to elevate Northamptonshire past 300.

Sanderson stroked Denly for a pair on the leg-side to convey up the 50 partnership – and the very best rating of his 15-year county profession – however he missed the chance of a maiden half-century, taking a swing at Qadri and edging behind.

White, nevertheless, made no such mistake, dispatching the leg-spinner cleanly excessive for a boundary to convey up his private landmark earlier than Denly lastly had him caught behind to seal Kent’s success.