County Championship: Kent spinners seal innings win over Northants

Hamidullah Qadri joined Kent from Derbyshire ahead of the 2020 county season

Kent's spinners finally overcame a late flourish from the Northamptonshire tail to wrap up an innings victory at Wantage Road and climb to eighth place in the County Championship Division One table.

Joe Denly claimed four wickets and Hamid Qadri three as the home side were bowled out for 369 despite an entertaining ninth-wicket stand of 70 between Ben Sanderson and Jack White.

The Northamptonshire pair both registered career-best scores in first-class cricket, with Sanderson hitting 46 before White, batting at number 10, hammered a maiden half-century from 68 balls.

He was last man out for 59 to seal Kent's first Championship victory since the opening round of the campaign, when they defeated the same opponents by seven wickets at Canterbury.

As they had done for most of the previous afternoon, Kent initially kept faith with an all-spin attack - which paid off after just 10 balls when Denly had Saif Zaib snapped up at short leg without adding to his overnight 43.

Tom Taylor displayed attacking intent, clubbing both Denly and Jack Leaning to the leg-side boundary and Lewis McManus attempted to follow suit as he latched onto a long hop from Qadri, only to pick out the square-leg fielder.

Taylor found an unexpected ally in Sanderson, who batted with freedom and rattled up a string of boundaries in their lively partnership of 38, prompting Kent to take the new ball and entrust it to their seamers.

It made little difference to Sanderson, who thrashed Arshdeep Singh twice to the cover fence, but Wes Agar duly provided the breakthrough - albeit in unusual fashion, deflecting Sanderson's drive onto the stumps to run out Taylor at the non-striker's end.

However, the eighth-wicket partnership was surpassed by the ninth, with White slamming Denly back over his head for four and unveiling a rarely seen range of shots, including the reverse sweep, to lift Northamptonshire's total beyond 300.

Sanderson stroked Denly for a couple on the leg-side to bring up the 50 partnership - and the highest score of his 15-year county career - but he missed the opportunity of a maiden half-century, taking a swing at Qadri and edging behind.

White, however, made no such mistake, dispatching the leg-spinner cleanly over the top for a boundary to bring up his personal landmark before Denly finally had him caught behind to seal Kent's success.

Northamptonshire paceman Ben Sanderson:

"It's always nice to score a few. I like being backed to go in at number nine and I've been working quite hard during the T20 period, having that time to go in the nets with our coaches Chris Liddle and Ben Smith.

"It's working out for me at the minute with the bat and hopefully I can continue to score some vital runs down there in future.

"We've got a huge game now against Middlesex (in July), which we need to win to give us any momentum going into the latter stages of this competition and we'll do everything to prep ourselves and get ready."

Kent captain Jack Leaning:

"To get a maximum points win is just the icing on the cake - it carries on that nice run of form we're on from T20 in the last couple of weeks. Championship wins are always hard-fought and I'm really happy for the boys.

"There was no hiding from the fact this was a game we needed to win. It doesn't matter what part of the game you contribute to, every contribution makes up to a four-day win and I want us to keep that mentality going forward.

"Daniel Bell-Drummond will get all the plaudits, as he should do, but credit to T (Tawanda Muyeye) for his first hundred - he's really knocked the door down to earn his chance and since he got in the first team, whether it be white or red ball, he's really taken it on."

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.