While the likes of Sam Northeast, Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley faced-off for the England Lions for a potential Ashes place, Joe Denly brilliantly scored a century for Kent against Hampshire.

Batsman Denly, who is currently the man in possession of the No.3 position in the England Test line-up, showed all his class by reaching his second Specsavers County Championship hundred of the season.

The 33-year-old put on 206 with Daniel Bell-Drummond, who scored a magnificent 94 of his own, as Kent approached first-innings parity.

The Denly and Bell-Drummond axis was the perfect encore to Darren Stevens’ 23rd first-class five-wicket haul, as the veteran had dominated the morning session with three wickets.

Stevens, who is 43 and playing in his 24th Championship campaign, followed up his two wickets with the new ball on the previous evening to prevent Hampshire from collecting maximum batting points.

Resuming on 340 for six under overcast skies which cleared throughout the day, Lewis McManus targeted the third man area with a number of early boundaries.

But the hosts could only score 69 runs in 19 overs as they somewhat slumped to 409 for nine before they declared.

Stevens had McManus caught behind for a well-made 49, before Kyle Abbott and Mason Crane departed in successive balls the former lbw and the latter caught at first slip.

The all-rounder ended with figures of five for 68, and took his first-class career tally to 491 scalps.

On a flat wicket, Kent never appeared in too much trouble and wickets came out the blue.

Abbott managed to get one to nip back to Sean Dickson, who was lbw without playing a shot, in the 13th over.

Jordan Cox, on his debut, was dropped on 18 at first slip by Ian Holland but only scored nine more runs before he edged Keith Barker behind.

But from then on Denly and Bell-Drummond scored runs at a steady rate, flirting at almost five runs and over throughout.

The Lions, which could be a shoot-out for an upper-order spot against Australia next month, are playing a four-day match against Australia XI at Canterbury this week, with the tourists batting the entirety of the first day.

Denly, who has only one Test appearance, sent his application in via postal vote.

His fifty came in 74 balls and his hundred, almost in the blink of an eye, arrived in 144 balls – with a two down to fine leg.

Denly, who passed 11,500 first-class runs in the innings, scored the majority of his 18 boundaries with attention-grabbing drives.

The one-time Denly was put in much danger was to a Crane delivery which spat across him, taking his edge, but stayed too low for McManus to get his gloves to.

He eased to 138 at stumps, with captain Heino Kuhn partnering him with 28 – as Kent closed on 319 for three, trailing by 90.

Hampshire first team manager Adi Birrell:

“It was a very tough day. I don’t think we were on it from the very start of the day and I was very disappointed we didn’t get the bonus point for 400; we didn’t show enough intent to get there.

“We were given a cricket lesson today. If you are not quite on your game and you are playing against good players then you get punished.

“We wanted to get beyond 450 which would have made the game almost safe but we can still lose this game if we are not too careful.

“Having said that it is a similar pitch to last week and at the same stage Warwickshire were three down and things happened the next day.

“Hopefully we can get the other seven wickets cheaply but we only have 90 runs to play with.”

Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens:

“We are in a strong position although we are disappointed Deebz got out there – he deserved a hundred.

“Joe was an angry man last week but he is in good form.

“The hundred at Tunbridge Wells got him going for the summer and we all know how good a player he is. Fingers crossed he gets that big call-up.

“I told him he can bat all day tomorrow if he wants. He’ll need to start again in the morning to help put more runs on the board and build a nice lead.

“Some balls misbehave a little bit and they’ve got the ball to reverse so it might be a challenge but the pitch is placid.

“Early season I didn’t get my rewards despite bowling nicely but thankfully the boys at the other end like Podders have done their job.

“I was frustrated but the last few weeks I have been doing the same as all year and it has been going my way.”