Northamptonshire have beaten Kent by 203 runs on the final day of their crucial relegation showdown in the LV= Insurance County Championship, after an afternoon of raw, stomach-churning tension at Canterbury. 

Rob Keogh took the final wicket with just ten minutes to spare before the 6.03pm cut-off, giving Northamptonshire 22 points to Kent’s six and moving them above the hosts in the Division One standings. 

Spinners Keogh and Simon Kerrigan span Northamptonshire to a sensational win, taking five for 31 and five for 43 respectively, after they’d declared on 396 for eight, setting Kent a target of 365 from 74 overs. Ryan Rickelton was their top scorer with 133, while George Linde took three for 41. 

The draw had looked the most likely result at the start of play, but the hosts collapsed from 64 for no wicket midway through the afternoon session to 161 all out. 

The visitors began day four with a lead of 252, when the most realistic hope of a meaningful contest seemed to hinge on Kent taking early wickets with the new ball. Yet although Lewis McManus added just a single to his overnight score of four when he was strangled down the leg side by Matt Milnes and caught by Sam Billings in the third over, Rickelton and Luke Procter responded with a 72-run stand. 

The partnership was initially cautious, but once the lead was over 300 the visitors started to swing. 

When Rickelton was eventually stumped after charging down the wicket to Linde, Kerrigan came in and reverse swept Jack Leaning for six. His 10-ball cameo ended when he skied Linde to Daniel Bell-Drummond at deep-midwicket and was caught for 22. 

The word on the vine on Wednesday night was that Northamptonshire were unlikely to risk a declaration against a direct relegation rival, but after 100 overs they came off, sending a frisson of excitement around the St. Lawrence that there might be a game on after all. 

If the target was gettable in theory, Zak Crawley and Ben Compton batted cautiously for the seven overs through to lunch and showed little appetite for the chase after it.  

Crawley lasted for just over an hour after the restart but when he was caught behind off Kerrigan, wickets began to tumble. Kerrigan removed Bell-Drummond for one, caught at first slip by Jimmy Neesham and the visitors’ hopes soared when the same bowler had Ben Compton caught by Emilio Gay at short leg for 34. 

Rog Keogh then trapped Joe Denly lbw for five, at which point Kent had lost four for 24 and still had another 41 overs to survive. 

It was 96 for four at tea and although Jordan Cox and Jack Leaning put together a useful stand of 49, Kerrigan bowled the former for 31  

Leaning and Sam Billings looked to be taking Kent towards safety when Kerrigan took two wickets in four balls. Leaning played on to Rob Keogh and was bowled for 26 and George Linde went in the same over, lasting only three balls before he tried to sweep Keogh and was caught by Neesham for a duck, leaving Kent in deep trouble on 144 for seven with 16 overs remaining.  

In his next over Keogh bowled Grant Stewart for a duck and Kerrigan then had Matt Milnes caught, by Josh Cobb in the slips, also without scoring. That left last man Matt Quinn at least 11.5 overs to survive with Billings. 

They survived to that landmark, but with Northamptonshire rattling through the overs, there was still another ten minutes in hand and having successfully deadbatted 37 deliveries, Quinn was finally caught at short leg by the sub fielder James Sales. 

Northamptonshire’s Rob Keogh said: “We’re tired, but very, very happy. It’s not very often that you get four-day wins that go into the last five minutes or so left on day four. I think everyone’s drained and gave it their all so to get it over the line that late … what a feeling! 

“With Baz Ball knocking around the corner you never know what sort of a total you need. The pitch was fairly flat at times, but we just thought if we can bat them out of the game, try and make it impossible for them to chase, or if not impossible then for them to be attacking and give us chances that it would give us chances. It turns out they didn’t really have a go at the carrot and it just meant we could go ultra-attacking around the bat. 

“I think the pressure told on them a bit, if you look at Jack White up front I think he bowled eight overs for eight runs and he could have got Crawley out at any point. It meant the pressure was too much for them, Simon started it getting those quick wickets and it just meant that we could build.” 

Simon Kerrigan said: “If you look at the Kent batting line-up, it’s full of either test cricketers, ex-cricketers or lads who’ve got multiple centuries to their name and they bat quite deep as well, but thankfully the pitch wear quite a lot, especially the footholes. It was spinning out of that which obviously helped massively have Rob there as well to spin it into the right handers. 

“I felt once we got Crawley out we got our tails up a little bit. It was just a case of keep trying to do the right things and trust there’d be a bit of pressure.”  

Kent’s Sam Billings said: “We had an opportunity in our first innings to really put our foot down and kind of command a position in the game but look, this is Division One cricket. They’re a good side and actually they just toiled away and got their rewards. I thought their two seamers were actually brilliant throughout the game and actually they were the difference. Losing five for 30 (in the first innings) was always going to be a struggle. All of a sudden that 30-lead wasn’t enough. We really could have had a hundred lead or so and then it’s a completely different complexion to the game, but like I said, credit to them, they did well. 

“They were always going to get a partnership on that pitch, I think it was a very good wicket to bat on and with that, I think it was a very good toss to win. We would have done the same, but they made the most of it and once they got into that position their two overseas players really did change the dynamic of the game. We all know how dangerous Jimmy Neesham is and that knock really catapulted them into a dangerous position which was hard to stop for us. 

“Today is just a classic game of a four-day cricket on a pitch that’s always going to have something in it for either spin or seam on the final day. They made the most out of it and we just didn’t apply ourselves anywhere near correctly. If we look at it there was a couple of good balls in there but in terms of application and in terms of dismissals there were a lot of soft dismissals, but credit to them they toiled away and actually it was more about character than probably skill in the end and yeah, they got the better of us unfortunately. 

“There’s no doubt Matthew Quinn can probably hold his head up the highest out of the whole of our team really this week. He was absolutely exceptional with the ball, he toiled in, going at two an over the whole time practically and then with the bat there he showed the application that was required from everyone really. He was one of the two that got a snorter and we just weren’t quite good enough to get over the line.  

“Eight minutes or whatever it was … you go back to losing five for 30 in that first innings and we just didn’t put our foot on the throat and press. It’s incredibly disappointing as you can probably tell and we’re in a bit of a dog fight now. 

“It’s a case of character and how we apply ourselves and do the dirty work when it’s tough really. This is proper four-day cricket and it hasn’t been like this probably my whole career if I’m honest. This is where you see skill and character come to the fore because of these good cricket wickets, it’s a battle of attrition. Nothing much can happen for the first two days and then all of a sudden things can happen quickly. It’s about the team that can battle collectively that will come out on top and we came out second best today. 

“Matt Henry arriving will be a huge boost, character-wise as well. For me it’s an exciting addition and a really good boost for the group. We all know how well he went last time, we’re not expecting him to to do the same again but you know with him he’ll leave absolutely everything out there and he’s one of the most liked guys that we’ve ever had at this club. It’s a really important addition at a really important time, so I’m looking forward to getting him in the group and pressing forward.”