Glamorgan are eyeing their first victory of the Rothesay County Championship season, after reducing Kent to 156 for eight in their first innings on day two, a deficit of 393.

Earlier Ben Kellaway hit 181 not out, the highest ever score by a Glamorgan batter at Canterbury, and his side posted their biggest ever score against Kent, declaring on 549 for nine.

Timm van der Gugten and James Harris took three wickets apiece as Glamorgan rattled through Kent’s top order, at one stage reducing them to 23 for five before Chris Benjamin offered some resistance with 68 not out.

Glamorgan began the day on 389 for seven, with Kellaway 91 not out overnight and he eased Grant Stewart to the cover boundary for the three runs that brought up his maiden first-class hundred.

Gorvin was on 14 when he was dropped by Benjamin off Kashif Ali but the first hour was otherwise soporific.

Benjamin then missed a chance to stump Kellaway off Parkinson when he was on 127 and the first wicket didn’t fall until four minutes before lunch, when Andy Gorvin hooked Parkinson to the backward square leg boundary and fell for 47, caught by Grant Stewart, ending a stand of 108.

Glamorgan were 498-8 at lunch, after which the visitors tried to up the scoring rate.

Parkinson bowled James Harris for 12 as he attempted a hack, but Kellaway flicked Ekansh Singh for four through fine leg to bring up his 150, then hit Parkinson over cow corner for three sixes from successive deliveries, before following up with a four, taking 23 off the 131st over.

The declaration came and a pitch that had looked moribund suddenly looked lethalJames Harris quickly removed both openers. Harry Finch was lbw for four and Ben Compton was caught by Kellaway at point for seven.

Skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond scratched a painful three before he edged Timm van der Gugten to Colin Ingram at first slip. Tawanda Muyeye prodded at a van der Gugten delivery and was snared by Asa Tribe at short leg and debutant Ekansh Singh then went in almost identical fashion, leaving Kent on 23 for five, although by reaching 50 for five at tea they at least passed their previous lowest score against Glamorgan, 49.

Benjamin recovered from a violent blow to the box to put on 79 for the fifth wicket with Leaning, but their stand was broken when the latter was lbw to Asitha Fernando.

Fernando’s appeal lasted for so long that he ran backwards all the way to the batter’s crease before Sue Redfern’s finger went up. Leaning clearly felt he’d hit it, but the reaction may have earned him a reprimand.

That ended the mini-revival as Stewart played on to Harris for four, but Benjamin reached his maiden Kent 50 by pushing Fernando for a single through cover. Parkinson edged Harris when he was on 11 and although Sam Northeast spilled the chance he went in the next over, strangled behind by Gorvin for 13. George Garrett, however, lingered for 25 balls and was unbeaten on 11 at stumps.

Glamorgan’s Ben Kellaway said: “I’m pretty fatigued but also absolutely delighted to kick on this morning after a pretty solid start to get us into this position is a really nice feeling.

(On taking his time to reach three figures) “I wasn’t trying to force anything, I mean I felt there was still a decent amount in the pitch when they bowled in the right areas so I didn’t want to force across it or force it to much as I think that would have been my downfall so I just let it come to me and it was nice to get over the line eventually after about probably 30 minutes or so.

“It was more just taking it step by step and breaking it down into little parts this morning. When me and Gorv started this morning the aim was to just get through that first half hour and then build from there and obviously it was nice to get a few away towards the end, it was nice to give us that sort of momentum going into our bowling innings.”

(On hitting three sixes from three balls) “We were just looking to accelerate the scoreboard and there’s a slightly short boundary on that side so it was quite tempting. I got hold of a couple but it was about being selective. It was nice to get a few away.”

(On declaring before he could get to 200) “You never know but it was the right time for us to pull out and have a crack at them. The way that those two (van der Gugten and Harris) bowled and the way the other two backed them up after that has been superb I think. We’ve landed the ball in that area we’ve talked about a lot. We’ve bowled consistently and accurately and we got those rewards tonight so hopefully we can come back tomorrow and knock them over and go again.”

Kent’s Adam Hollioake said: “It was a disappointing day. Probably didn’t bowl at our best in the game, and I think that’s given Glamorgan a bit of scoreboard pressure. Then it’s definitely a new ball wicket. We didn’t bowl well with either of the two new goals that we had. I feel like they’ve got their length right.

“They got four wickets caught short leg or off the thigh pad that have ballooned up. I think that’s the first I’ve ever seen that in my career, but that shows that they’ve hit the right length. The ball’s jagged from that length.

“But then by that being said, Chris Benjamin showed that if you dig in and show a bit of resilience, that you can bat out there. We just have to come back tomorrow, and try and put some partnerships together and try and minimise this deficit. Then when we bowl a second time around, try and bowl a bit better.”

(On life in the pitch) “With the new ball, I believe there is. And they did that well. I think once the ball gets older, it definitely does get easier. So I might find in the morning, when the ball gets a bit older, it definitely will be easier.

“They’re going to get a second new ball, but then hopefully, they’ll be a bit more tired as well. So the object of the game, we’re eight down, so we just got to try and draw that out as long as we can, keep them out in the field on their legs and try and minimise the deficit and take them in the more time out of the game we take, then we might be looking down the line trying to force them to make a declaration, or if they think there’s not enough time, they might enforce the follow on  if we can’t get there because we’re still It’s a fair way to go to that.”

(On Scoreboard pressure) “Hey, I think that plays on the mind every time you play. The It exists because it does this such a thing. Yes, no doubt. When you’re walking out there and the opposition have got 500, you’ve got a lot of runs to get to just even avoid the follow-on.

“That does play into the mind. It shouldn’t, but it does. I’m not saying that as a coach because that’s the same thing as when I was playing. Theoretically, you meant to put the scoreboard out of your mind, but we’re all human beings, and unfortunately, scoreboard pressure does exist.”