County Championship: Kent earn sizeable first-innings lead against Lancashire

Jack Leaning hit eight fours in his 90

Lancashire's County Championship title hopes took a dent after a frenetic day at Old Trafford in which 16 wickets fell.

New Zealand's Matt Henry took five wickets in an inspired morning spell as Lancashire went from 112-4 to 145 all out.

Kent soon fell to 12-3 in reply, but valuable half centuries from Joe Denly (59) and Jack Leaning (90) took them into the lead.

Grant Stewart then hit 64 not out as they were all out for 270, despite Tom Bailey's 6-64 for the Red Rose, who closed on 2-0 in their second innings.

Kent had lost captain and wicketkeeper Sam Billings to Covid before play with replacement Ollie Robinson travelling up on a train to take his place, but under muggy grey skies, Henry ripped through the Lancashire middle and lower order.

The Kiwi quick bowled Washington Sundar for six when the India all-rounder offered no stroke from the second ball of the day and had George Lavelle lbw off the fourth.

The pick of Henry's wickets was when Bailey's off-stump was shattered by a beauty which pitched and moved away and, when Luke Wood holed out for 18, Henry had claimed 5-15. He eventually finished with 5-45 as Lancashire were bowled out in under an hour.

Things did not get any easier when Kent batted.

Ben Compton and Daniel Bell-Drummond fell quickly as they slipped to 5-2 then, when Zak Crawley chipped Bailey to mid-wicket for a 27-ball duck, they were struggling at 12-3.

For Crawley, it was a tortured innings against the new ball of Bailey and Will Williams. The England opener remains without a half-century in 13 red-ball innings stretching back to the end of May.

Denly and Leaning put on a vital 106 for the fourth wicket as they defended well against the seamers before lunch and attacked the spinners after.

When Denly fell just before tea after an excellent knock and Jordan Cox and Robinson were removed by Bailey in the first over after the interval, it was game on at 120-6.

However, Stewart put on 103 with Leaning as they accelerated the scoring rate to take the game away from Lancashire.

Leaning survived dropped catches in the slips on 7 and 48, before eventually falling 10 short of his century.

But Stewart continued as his eight fours and a six powered Kent to what could be a decisive first-innings advantage of 125, despite Bailey's efforts with the 11th five-wicket haul of his career.

Lancashire overturned a first-innings deficit of 103 runs to win against Northants at Wantage Road last week, but they will need a strong batting performance on day three to stand any chance, to keep on the heels of Surrey and Hampshire in the title race.

Lancs paceman Tom Bailey told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"We would have liked to have bowled them out for a bit fewer and would have also liked to have scored more runs.

"Hopefully our batters can put in a performance and make a game of it. The pitch did a lot in the morning but as the sun came out it flattened out.

"I think it will spin fourth innings and we have two good spinners. And we know how to win from this performance having done it last week."

Kent's Jack Leaning:

"If we'd have set out at the start of the day and said: 'what do we want' we're probably not a million miles away from what we'd have wanted.

"To bowl them out early on and then to get a pretty sizeable lead on this pitch we are really happy.

"I was just trying to stick to a game plan - their seamers bowled really well and didn't let up much. It was about being really proactive against the spinners and not letting them settle."