Leaders Surrey were battling hard to avoid their first defeat of the season in the LV= Insurance County Championship, taking six wickets in the final session after Kent had built a significant lead on day two at Canterbury.
The champions were all out for 145 in their first innings with Matt Quinn taking three for 22 and Wes Agar three for 32, while India’s Arshdeep Singh took his first championship wickets. Sean Abbott was their top scorer with 34.
Tawanda Muyeye then cracked a gleeful 79 and Daniel Bell-Drummond made 59 as Kent moved on to 197 for six in their second innings, a lead of 353, but a productive evening session gave the visitors hope going into day three, Dan Worrall claiming three for 53.
The 171st Canterbury Week continued at the Spitfire Ground and a crowd of 2431 attended on day two, bolstered by around 1100 schoolchildren and teachers, although the start was delayed by 45 minutes due to a brief but violent thunderstorm.
When play began Surrey, who were 18 for two overnight, batted with minimal conviction.
Tom Latham was on three when Matt Quinn had him caught by Muyeye at short leg and Quinn struck again when Jordan Cox took an acrobatic catch to remove Dom Sibley for 9.
Arshdeep Singh was rewarded for a spell of sustained menace with his first wicket in county cricket when he had Ben Foakes lbw for three and Quinn and Muyeye then produced an almost exact imitation of the Latham wicket to get rid of Jamie Smith for 6.
Surrey lurched to 60 for six at lunch and hadn’t added to the score when Agar bowled Will Jacks with the tenth ball of the afternoon session, with a delivery that sent his middle stump pirouetting.
Jordan Clark and Abbott put on the biggest stand of the innings with 48 for the eighth wicket, until both were dismissed by Joey Evison. Clark lingered for 25 before Evison hit his leg side bail and Abbott went for 34 in Evison’s next over, after a one-handed catch by Cox.
The Dans, Worrall and Moriarty, added 20 for the last wicket until the former tried to slog Singh, who ripped out his leg stump, leaving Surrey seven short of the follow-on target, although with 57 overs left and the St. Lawrence experiencing sweltering conditions it was no surprise when Kent chose not to enforce it.
They were 37 without loss at tea, and although Clark made the breakthrough with his first ball, getting Compton caught for 17 by Atkinson at point, Muyeye started to put on an exhibition.
He reached 50 by cutting Abbott for four, but not for the first time in his career he fell when a century looked there for the taking when he hit Atkinson to Latham.
It was a major disappointment for the majority of the crowd and a cluster of wickets followed.
Denly went for six to Worrall that was grabbed by a diving Foakes, Worrall produced an unplayable outswinger to get rid of Jack Leaning for one and Cox was on two when he gloved Abbott behind.
Bell-Drummond then fell in nearly identical fashion, leaving Evison and Hamid Qadri to bat out the rest of an almost interminable session, which finally ended at 7.37pm.
Kent’s Tawanda Muyeye said: “The bowlers were pretty good today.
We probably put them on the back foot early on and I think as a bowling unit you don’t get many days as perfect as that.
“They put it on a string today, it was pretty impressive to watch. I guess Arshdeep brought new energy, Wes is always just bubbly and with Quinny all three of them were pretty good and with Joey and Hamid they were very good as a collective.
“The pitch was good and wen you have a big lead it’s so much easier to bat. We tried to capitalise on the wicket being flatter with the sun being out and obviously I enjoy batting with Daniel so it was good fun.
“I’m pretty chilled I guess, so having him out there being chilled as well was pretty good for us. I think it flattened out a bit and they bowled really well but I think we probably played just a little bit better so hopefully we can carry on tomorrow and get that 400 lead.”