Rob Keogh hit a century as Northamptonshire clawed their way back into contention on day three of their LV= Insurance County Championship game with Kent at Canterbury.

Keogh’s unbeaten 101 helped the visitors to 300 for seven at stumps, a lead of 195, thwarting Kent’s hopes of wrapping up a victory inside three days.

Hassan Azad was the next highest scorer with 51, while Gareth Berg was unbeaten on 49 when play was abandoned for the day due to bad light.

Daniel Bell-Drummond had Kent’s best bowling figures with two for 42, but it was a frustrating day for the hosts, after bowlers had dominated on days one and two.

Conditions were cold and overcast when the visitors resumed on 47 for two in their second innings, still 58 behind, but a pitch that had previously misbehaved seemed to have flattened out and with Grant Stewart unable to bowl after picking up an injury, the visitors put together a succession of partnerships.

Azad and Luke Procter steadily eroded the lead and after 90 minutes of the morning session the latter pulled Quinn through square leg to reach his half-century and put Northamptonshire ahead, only to be out lbw to the next ball.

Procter then fell to Daniel Bell-Drummond’s second ball, chipping it to square leg where he was caught by a sprinting Joe Denly, for 38.

Bell-Drummond then struck again to get Josh Cobb caught behind for 12, leaving Northamptonshire wobbling on 137 for five at lunch. At that point the lead was just 32, but Lewis McManus hung around for an hour of the afternoon session before he nicked Joey Evison behind for 14.

Keogh reverse-swept Jack Leaning for four to reach 50 and he put on 32 with James Sales before the latter nicked Leaning to Sam Billings for eight.

By tea the lead was 138, with Gareth Berg joining Keogh for a stand that exasperated the home crowd. Keogh reached three figures when he drove Hogan through mid-off for two and with 15 overs remaining the umpires sent the players off for bad light, leaving the contest hanging in the balance ahead of the final day.

Northamptonshire’s Rob Keogh said: “Sam Billings was letting me know this morning that there might be an Easter weekend in Kent, so I was very determined to get through. We know we’ve got to bat and bat long and sometimes it can be nice as a batter when there’s no real pressure other than occupying the crease as possible.

(Asked if there’s a better number nine in county cricket than Gareth Berg): “He actually said that he doesn’t think there’s a better number nine in world cricket to me, in the middle, when he’d crunched one for four. I do enjoy batting with Bergy actually. He’s fun to bat with and he’s got a lovely technique for a bowler and I guess we should call him an all-rounder.

“He’s come out there again when the situation was tough for us, we were right up against it and he showed some real fight there.”

“For me it was question of batting time (rather than runs). It wasn’t until we got about a 150 lead that I thought if we can get this up to 220, 230 there’s a little bit there for us to work with. Obviously we’re still a little bit behind the game now, but there’s still a little bit in this pitch. Every now and again one zips through.

“I actually thought we bowled really well that first hour with the new ball, we just didn’t find the edge. They played and missed and we nicked them in the first innings.”

On equalling David Capel’s mark of 15 centuries for Northamptonshire: “I owe a lot to Capes, he gave me my debut in T20 and List A cricket and showed faith in me as a young tearaway kid from Dunstable who was up to no good. To sit level with a club legend and a guy who’s represented his country is obviously very special.”

Kent’s Simon Cook said: “It’s delicately poised I think. It’s still in our favour, I think the wicket’s flattening out, there’s been three heavy rollers on it so far and it seems to be deadening out. It was quite lively on day one, but yeah it’s certainly flattened out a bit more.

“There was a good partnership there between Berg and Keogh and they showed that with application you can score runs on it.

“Hopefully that’s going to bode well for us tomorrow. You don’t like to look too far ahead, you try and stay in the moment as much as you can. Going a bowler down (Grant Stewart) in that first session didn’t help, but the likes of Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joey Evison stepped up in particular. Quinny and Hoges led the line and probably bowled quite a few more overs than they expected to, right the way to the end.

“It probably helped us going off at the end there for bad light, but we should be able to hit them hard tomorrow in that first session. Bowling them out for around 220, or 230 would give us quite a nice little chance.

“(Grant Stewart) came off with a with a stiff side, they’re continuing to assess him so we’ll see how he is tomorrow morning.

“That’s what four-day cricket’s about, it’s about character. It’s quite easy  when it’s going well, we say that in the first innings. It’s quite easy to have positive outlooks when you’re taking wickets and getting wickets and going past the outside edge. When wickets do get a bit flatter and it is a bit deader that’s when your character shows and we did that by and large for the whole of the day, particularly with the older ball when it was 50 or 60 overs old and still going past the outside edge.

“The guys are still running in with great heart, they showed real character and that’s what gets you through in games like this. Certainly when they become tighter games, you need those characters to step up.”