Zak Crawley hit 91 to leave Kent in a strong position at the end of day two in their LV= Insurance County Championship game with Northamptonshire at Canterbury. The visitors were reduced to 47 for two in their second innings, still trailing by 58 at stumps.

Crawley was by some distance the top scorer in a game otherwise dominated by the bowlers. Chris Tremain took five for 44 and Jack White four for 57 as Kent were all out for 222, while earlier Matt Quinn took 4-24 as Northamptonshire were bowled out for 117 in their first innings.

Only 26 overs were bowled on day one and although the weather had improved drastically when Northamptonshire resumed on 89 for seven, batting didn’t seem any easier as Quinn struck with the second ball of the morning, getting James Sales lbw for five.

Gareth Berg went down fighting, hitting three successive fours off Michael Hogan and he put on 32 with Tremain, but the highest partnership of the innings ended when Quinn had the latter caught behind for 9. With his next delivery Quinn bowled White for a golden duck, leaving Berg stranded on 21.

Kent’s openers Ben Compton and Crawley put on 42 for the first wicket, but the former was caught behind for 25, leaving the hosts on 50 for one at lunch.

The Spitfires advanced to 90 for one when Tremain revived the visitors with two wickets in three balls.

Daniel Bell-Drummond fell for 27 to a steepling catch by Josh Cobb at short fine leg and Joe Denly was lbw for a second-ball duck.

Crawley steered Kent into the lead and reverse-swept Rob Keogh to reach 49, before pulling the same bowler to backward square leg for three to reach his half-century, but White then responded with two quick wickets.

Jack Leaning was lbw for 26 before Jordan Cox edged the third ball he faced down the leg side to Lewis McManus for five.

Kent had moved to 192 for five at tea and Crawley looked set to reach three figures when he misjudged a Tremain delivery and Berg took a dolly in the covers. Joey Evison then edged White behind for five and Grant Stewart was caught behind off Tremain for a four-ball duck.

With just the tail to bat with, Sam Billings hit out. He was dropped in the deep by Tremain off White and smashed the next ball back over White’s head for six, before he fell in hideous fashion to Tremain, the ball catching the toe of his raised bat before it looped to McManus. Hogan was dropped in the slips off the next ball and he cracked the four that steered the Kent lead past three figures before the innings was concluded when White had Quinn lbw for 2.

Quinn had Ricardo Vasconcelos caught by a leaping Compton for four and Evison had Sam Whiteman caught behind for 12, but mildly farcical scenes ensued as the floodlights came on at 7pm, with batters Hassan Azad and Luke Procter apparently keen to leave the field.

After a lengthy discussion in the middle, play continued with Kent bowling their spinners Leaning and Denly for an over each, but no further wickets fell.

Kent’s Zak Crawley said: “I was just trying to play every ball on it merits and they bowled really well, they didn’t give us much to score from. As I got in I tried to push on and score a bit more quickly, but they bowled pretty well all day to be honest and we ended up getting 222 when we could have got 300 and put the game to bed, but we’re in a good position.

“It was tough to start and once you get in you never feel that you can score quickly. I never felt that I could just hit through the line like on some other pitches, there’s definitely a ball with everyone’s name on it, there’s enough in there for the bowlers.

“It’s a question of not letting them score too many runs, we’ll try and set aggressive fields and get a few nicks. We don’t want to be too defensive. If you bowl the exact same ball twice ones going to go dead straight and the other’s going to nick. It’s just one of those pitches that comes out of nowhere.

“Sometimes when it’s doing more you’ve got to score quicker, you’ve got to put them under pressure a bit more. That’s what we’re trying to do at England, that’s the style that England want to play so they want to see people in county cricket who can play the same way.

“I think I naturally score quite quickly, that’s my natural game. I think it’s something I’ve got carried away with in recent times. I scored quickly after I had that period of slowness at the beginning, from 20 to 90 I must have been at a 75 strike rate I recko,n so I’ve just got to bide my time a bit more. There was a nice turn out today and it’s always good to score runs for Kent. I was pleased with score and I’d have taken it if offered at the start of the day.

“I think we’ve played well so far, we’re definitely on top. The pitch is slow and it’s not easy to score quickly, there’ enough in there for the bowlers so, we’ll see how it pans out tomorrow. The weather makes a big difference with the pitch, so hopefully it’s a bit overcast tomorrow.”

Northamptonshire’s Chris Tremain said: “It’s a nice ground, the slope on it makes everything really interesting, even with a flat ball or a flat wicket.

“Anything that basically brings the batsmen back into the game, the slope negates. There’s always something you can use, there’s always ways to take wickets when something like this is on offer.

“You can set up a really good game of cricket, there’s still enough of a threat there. I actually played with Zak at the Hobart Hurricanes, so there were two wickets I wanted to get today. One was Zak and one was Bilbo. I got both of them and I’ll let them know about it every time I see them from now on! I’ve actually really enjoyed seeing these guys again, I’ve played a lot of cricket with Sam Billings and got to know Zak quite well in the Big Bash. It’ll be great to catch up with them after the game, but while we’re in the field I’m going to do everything I can to ruin their day!

“Weirdly enough I’ve wanted to play championship cricket since I was in High School, I had a coach who was an old school cricketer and he spoke about al these great things, so it was something I always wanted to do, but I’d never been able to get the right visa.

“I’m really excited and I actually ended up cramping up a bit in my calves from being a bit nervous. It’s first-class cricket, it’s tricky, difficult and it’s always going to be hard. Look at Kent’s batting line-up, there’s a lot of international cricket in there.

“I don’t think the pitch changed, but the overheads did and that made all the difference.”