Centuries by Luke Wells, Josh Bohannon and Ashton Turner on debut have given Lancashire a chance of defeating Kent on the final day of the Rothesay County Championship match at Blackpool and thereby securing their first red-ball victory of the season.

Replying to the visitors’ 374, Lancashire were 639 for nine at the close after a day in which their batsmen savaged Daniel Bell-Drummond’s attack.

Wells made 152, Bohannon 124 and Turner a career-best 154 on a day when their county amassed the highest total in matches between the sides.

Lancashire will go into the final day with a lead of 261 and the decision facing stand-in skipper James Anderson is whether to declare overnight or club a few more runs before trying to force a win on a docile surface. The latter seems unlikely.

In a first session slightly curtailed by a light shower, Lancashire added 105 runs in 30.5 overs for the loss of nightwatchman Tom Bailey, who had made 25 untroubled runs before he was lbw on the front foot to Joey Evison.

Otherwise, the highlight of the morning was Wells reaching his third first-class century for Lancashire against Kent when he reverse-swept Jack Leaning to the third man boundary. The Red Rose opener had faced 195 balls and hit twelve fours and a six.

However, the first session proved to be merely the prelude to an even more severe assault on the Kent bowling in the next two sessions. After taking 24 balls to get off the mark, Josh Bohannon reached his fifty off a further 78 deliveries with an on-drive off Evison.

In the next over Wells lost the ball when he walloped Matt Parkinson for a six over the wall at the South End to bring up his own 150.

Next ball, however, the former Lancashire leg-spinner applied to balm to his wounded pride when Wells tried to repeat his previous stroke and was well caught by Wes Agar at long off for 152. That dismissal ended the opener’s enterprising 136-run stand with Bohannon and it left his side still 71 runs shy of Kent’s first innings total.

Despite having made his runs in a minute short of six hours during which he hit 17 fours and three sixes, Wells’ dejection at his dismissal clearly suggested he thought he had missed a big opportunity to make an even bigger contribution. The cricket that followed supported that judgement.

Ashton Turner joined Bohannon and the pair put on a further 174 runs either side of tea, with Turner making an immediate impact in his first innings for Lancashire, reaching his hundred off 117 balls with six fours and four sixes.

Bohannon had earlier reached his century off 191 balls with a square cut off his old team mate Parkinson, having hit nine fours and three sixes but he was eventually caught by Agar off Jack Leaning’s off-spin for 124, having hit ten fours and four sixes in his 210-ball innings. 

Late in the day, Matty Hurst was bowled for 21 by Evison, who took his third wicket and finished with three for 61 from 21 overs on a day when he had plainly been the pick of the Kent attack.

Eight overs before the close Turner was caught at long off by Leaning off Parkinson and Michael Jones fell to the same combination for 41, leaving the leg-spinner with figures three for 188 from 35 overs. Jaydn Denly took two late wickets.

The problem now for Anderson and his bowlers is that this Stanley Park pitch still looks very flat and it will take all of Anderson’s wiles and a shrewd rotation of his bowlers to take ten wickets in one day, given that only 19 have fallen in the first three, five of today’s dismissed batsmen perishing to catches in the deep.  

Kent head coach, Adam Hollioake, said:“It was a difficult day in the field, that’s for sure. The wicket died down and didn’t have a lot of pace in it. We spent the day just defending. Today we spent our time trying to attack the concentration of the batsmen because the wicket wasn’t offering us much.

“The boys earned their money today. Boring is a compliment on days like today when you have to try and break the batsmen’s concentration and stop them from scoring. Joey Evison does that very  well, he holds his line and length and today he got his rewards.

“We didn’t get enough on that pitch having been 270-odd for three. We underscored so it’s no good saying it’s no good to bowl on.

“There’ll be scoreboard pressure tomorrow. They’ll have men round the bat and if they take a couple of wickets, they’ll be all over us, so we definitely have work to do.”

Ashton Turner, Lancashire batsman, said: “It’s always fun to get some runs. It doesn’t always work out like that. Firstly, to be able to make my debut for Lancashire. It’s an immensely proud club with a lot of history. To be part of that list of first-class players for the county, I’m very proud of that achievement.

“Secondly, to be able to be a part of what was an amazing day for the club. There were contributions throughout the batting order. I think we put the Kent bowlers under some pressure and the fielders under a lot of pressure all day.

“On what’s been a pretty docile wicket, we now find ourselves in a position where if we bowl really well tomorrow, we’re a chance to win the game. I’ve fielded the last couple of days and I saw at times it could be a nice place to bat. We also saw it was spinning a bit.

“Once you get the pace of the wicket and are able to adjust to the conditions, it can get a little bit easier as you spend a little bit of time out there. Going into tomorrow, we’re going to hope that it continues to spin.

“I think that’ll be a big part of the way forward for us and how we’re going to win this game. Hopefully we can get a little bit of inconsistent spin. We’re going to have attacking fields for most of the day, I would suspect. With that, hopefully there will come some opportunities.

“Then it comes down to a little bit of luck on the day. Can you find the edge? As a fielding unit, it’s our job to take the opportunities. We might create ten chances and it’s up to us to try and take them all.”