Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond became Wantage Road’s first visiting triple centurion as his side closed in on an innings victory against Northamptonshire in the LV= Insurance County Championship.

Bell-Drummond finished unbeaten on exactly 300, registering the fourth-highest individual score in the county’s history after almost nine hours at the crease as the visitors racked up an imposing total of 621.

That left Northamptonshire, whose leg-spinner Alex Russell recorded figures of six for 175 in only his second first-class game, weighed down by a hefty first-innings deficit of 384 as they went out to bat again.

However, spirited half-centuries by Rob Keogh – his second of the match – and skipper Luke Procter maintained their side’s hopes of avoiding defeat as they reached 214 for five, still 170 adrift, before bad light halted play.

Resuming on 271 overnight, Bell-Drummond survived a strong lbw appeal by Ben Sanderson in the second over of the day and made cautious progress while his partners threw the bat at the other end.

A delicate late cut for two off Russell propelled him beyond John Freeman’s 286 for Essex more than a century earlier – the previous highest score registered by an opposition player at Wantage Road.

However, wickets began to tumble to the young spinner, with Joey Evison lured down the track and stumped for 27 before Hamid Qadri and Wes Agar also perished in pursuit of quick runs.

With Jack White trapping Matt Quinn leg before first ball, Bell-Drummond, on 293, suddenly looked in danger of ending up marooned with a personal landmark tantalisingly close as last man Arshdeep Singh arrived at the crease.

The India international calmly swung his first delivery over long on for two before smashing a couple of boundaries as Bell-Drummond inched closer to 300 – eventually pulling Russell for a single and punching the air with delight and relief.

Having slammed the next ball into the hands of deep midwicket, Arshdeep raced off to lace up his bowling boots as he and Agar hurtled in for a pre-lunch burst at Northamptonshire’s openers.

They removed both before the interval, with Emilio Gay prodding Arshdeep to Jack Leaning at second slip before the skipper’s call for Joe Denly’s leg-breaks paid dividends as Ricardo Vasconcelos departed in the same manner to the final ball of the session.

Sam Whiteman displayed some resistance after lunch, crunching Agar for successive off-side boundaries to reach 28, but Denly tempted him to sweep and the resulting top edge sailed to backward square.

Denly, who remained on throughout most of the afternoon, might have collected a third wicket when Ben Compton was unable to grasp a sharp chance from Keogh at short leg with the right-hander on 18.

Keogh gradually got on top of Kent’s all-spin attack, taking advantage of some wayward Denly deliveries to crack three fours in an over and sweeping Qadri to the square leg fence to bring up his half-century on the cusp of tea.

There was a scare for Keogh when a ball from Qadri lodged in his back pad and then trickled across to rest against the stumps without dislodging a bail, but the spinner got his man soon afterwards for 57, winning what looked a very marginal lbw decision.

That broke the fourth-wicket stand of 80, but Procter progressed to a resolute 50 from 146 balls and, with Saif Zaib going for his shots at the other end, the pair shaved another 51 off the deficit.

Leaning brought himself on to bowl and promptly pinned Procter leg before with his second delivery, but murky overhead conditions forced the players from the field just a few overs later.

Daniel Bell-Drummond, who became only the third Kent player to score a triple hundred in the Championship and the first visiting player to do so at Wantage Road, said:

“It’s an amazing feeling – I’ve never felt like this in my career and I’m still on cloud nine. I’ll definitely have a drink tonight and enjoy the moment. Everyone wants to do it but I never thought it was coming.

“I’m glad I was able to stick to my plans and not give my wicket away. That’s how I grew up playing – I really valued my wicket and I’m glad I was able to do that in this game.

“Yesterday I was more in the zone, head down and really focused on every ball but, speaking to a lot of friends and family and what it meant to them, I was more nervous this morning trying to get the 29 more runs I needed.

“It couldn’t have been a better day for me. Hopefully I’ll move forward with my career now and keep scoring runs in all forms. I’ve had a few tough periods this season and in my career, so I was definitely going to make the most of it.

“Northants bowled well this morning, we lost quite a few wickets in that first hour and it got quite nerve-racking because I had to try and come out of that shell and Arshdeep kept me on my toes as well!

“I felt that maybe if the landmark didn’t come that was my fault, because I wasn’t really going for it. I can’t put that on a no 11, for sure, but it was quite entertaining when he started smashing it! It was funny with hindsight but I was very nervous at the time.

“We’re in a really good position. It was a great effort by the bowlers in the last two sessions of the day so we’re right where we want to be.”

Northamptonshire spinner Alex Russell, who took six for 175 in only his second County Championship game, said:

“It was nice to get that first five-for. It was a difficult challenge, being out there for as long as we were but it was just about trying to keep ourselves in the game, to be positive and take wickets.

“The Kookaburra ball has proved quite nice to bowl spin with and being a leg-spinner, the rough outside leg stump was always in the game for me. It gets soft really quick, which can be tricky for seamers but I think it brings spin into the game a lot more.

“For me, once I had those first two wickets I thought I could probably go on and get a few more, so the plan was to keep it simple, stay patient and hope that chances would come eventually as they tried to up the tempo.

“He (Daniel Bell-Drummond) played really well and didn’t really give us a chance for 300, it was quite impressive to watch.

“I think the plan for us is to try and bat all day tomorrow. It’s going to be tricky but I think we’ve showed that we can do that.

“We’ve got be patient and understand it’s going to be difficult at times. It’s going to take a big effort but hopefully we can get a result.”