Jason Holder, Matthew Waite centuries leave Kent with a mountain to climb

Kent 112 for 2 (Bell-Drummond 54*, Leaning 43*) trail Worcestershire 618 for 7 dec (Holder 123*, Roderick 117, Waite 100*) by 506 runs

Jason Holder and Matthew Waite both hit unbeaten centuries as Worcestershire built a daunting lead against Kent on day two of their Vitality County Championship match at Canterbury.

Joe Leach then took two early wickets to reduce Kent to 15 for two, before the hosts rallied to finish on 112 for two at stumps, a deficit of 506. Daniel Bell-Drummond and Jack Leaning were the not out batters on 54 and 43 respectively.

Earlier Holder was unbeaten on 123 while Waite made exactly 100 before the visitors declared on 618 for seven in their first innings, with Adam Hose contributing 90.

Joey Evison had Kent’s best bowling figures with three for 58, while Matt Parkinson again “took one for the team”, claiming three for 201 and bowling for 44.5 overs.

Worcestershire began day two on 308 for five and subjected Kent players and fans alike to two sessions of unremitting torture, offering hardly any chances on a wicket that looked like chipboard.

The breakthrough finally came in the 117th over. Evison initially had a shout for lbw against Hose turned down, but the next delivery hit him low on the pad in front of middle.

Rob Jones went for 37 when he swished at Parkinson and was caught by Bell-Drummond at first slip, but it was 424 for seven at lunch and Holder then wreaked havoc, undeterred by fields with as many as eight men on the boundary.

The only intrigue during a hopelessly one-sided afternoon session was how many landmarks Worcestershire would tick off before declaring.

Holder glanced Parkinson down the legside for two to reach his half-century and reached three figures with a single off Jack Leaning.

Waite was more measured, hitting just two boundaries on his way to fifty, but the second half of his innings was pyrotechnic. He smacked Parkinson over mid-on for six to reach 99, then scrambled a single to bring up three figures, at which point the visitors finally declared.

Kent’s reply got off to a grim start when Joe Leach removed Ben Compton with the fifth ball of the innings. Compton initially looked like he’d escaped after edging the ball to third slip, but Jones, having dropped the ball into his lap, then caught it with his legs.

Zak Crawley then recorded his fourth single-digit score in five innings when Leach had him caught down the leg-side by a tumbling Gareth Roderick, but Bell-Drummond and Leaning responded with a partnership worth 97. Bell-Drummond reached 50 with a risky single off Brett D’Oliveira, but having seen off the new ball Kent batted sensibly and looked significantly happier at the end of the session than they had at the start.

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