| LV= County Championship Division One, County Ground, Northampton (day two) |
| Kent 519-9d: Compton 140, Bell-Drummond 83, Crawley 62, Leaning 62, Stewart 61 |
| Northamptonshire 21-2: |
| Northamptonshire (1 pt) trail Kent (5 pts) by 498 runs with eight wickets remaining |
| Match scorecard |
Jack Leaning and Grant Stewart scored contrasting half-centuries as Kent piled on the runs on a rain-affected second day of their County Championship match with Northamptonshire.
Captain Leaning ground his way to a 120-ball fifty to build on the fine work of Ben Compton, who made 140, and Zak Crawley and Daniel Bell-Drummond’s half-centuries.
On the other hand, Stewart was given a licence and used it to bash five sixes in 34 deliveries on his route to the milestone – before he ended 61 not out – as Kent declared on 519-9.
All-rounder Stewart and Darren Stevens then made early in-roads by displacing Ben Curran and Emilio Gay as Northamptonshire ended the day on 21 for two – 498 runs behind.
Rain washed out the morning session to leave 66 overs for Kent to rack up a massive first-innings total, having been put in on the first day.
Compton continued almost unperturbed from his overnight 125, carefully adding two boundaries to take him to 100 fours for the season.
He departed for 140 when driving to gully, before Jordan Cox chopped Gareth Berg onto his own stumps and Ollie Robinson edged to first slip in a positive eight-over spell for the hosts.
Leaning, who is deputising for Sam Billings as red-ball captain, missed the start of campaign with a hamstring injury and appeared slow to get his season motoring. He started with a duck and 36 against Yorkshire and a nine in the draw with Surrey last week.
His half-century, the 29th of his first-class career, was brought up in 120 deliveries with a delicious on drive on the cusp of tea.
Stevens had already fallen cutting behind before Leaning chipped a leading edge back to Tom Taylor for 62.
But that brought together the cunning rotation of George Linde and Stewart’s big-hitting.
One of his sixes off Rob Keogh comfortably cleared the Lynn Wilson Indoor School. A conservative estimate measured the strike at 120 metres.
He followed that up with four more – altogether tamer sixes – as the tempo rose against a weary Northamptonshire attack.
The home side were given 13 overs to negotiate under the lights and lost Curran when he tamely diverted to mid-wicket.
Gay earned a life against the wily Stevens with a tough caught and bowled chance but was not so fortunate after he was struck on the pads.
Report supplied by the ECB Reporters’ Network.
