Derbyshire moved further down the road towards victory despite Ben Compton’s efforts to block their advance on the third day of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match against Kent at Derby.

The opener scored 156 from 287 balls out of 326 for 9 and 49 in a second innings 157 for 3  after the visitors were forced to follow-on.

All-rounder Anuj Dal was the pick of the home attack in Kent’s first innings, taking 4 for 50 from 22 overs including the prize wicket of Compton.

Tawanda Muyeye made an unbeaten 55 but at the close  Kent were still 104  behind and will need resolute batting along with some assistance from the weather to save the game on day four.

The day had started well for Kent with Matt Parkinson extending his nightwatchman duties for another 50 minutes before Derbyshire removed him.

Parkinson was unsettled by a short ball from Zak Chappell and could only fend it to short leg where Caleb Jewell made no mistake.

The leg spinner had done a good job for his side, offering sound defence and good judgment in a stand of 41 from 106 balls with Compton and was only undone by a good piece of fast bowling.

The same could not be said for the rest of the Kent first innings which subsided in tame fashion either side of lunch.

Jack Leaning lost patience and missed a big sweep at Jack Morley to be lbw three overs before the interval and a mini collapse against the second new ball left the visitors in the mire.

Compton had batted with control and calmness throughout his innings so it was a surprise when he drove Dal low to cover.

Harry Finch lobbed the first ball he faced to mid off and when Dal moved one in off the seam to bowl Chris Benjamin, Ken had lost 3 for 7 in four overs.

Any chance they had of avoiding the follow on was gone and after Grant Stewart edged Martin Andersson behind, the innings ended when Jake Ball aggravated the injury sustained while bowling on day two and could not continue.

Not surprisingly given the threat of rain on Monday, Derbyshire sent Kent back in with 261 needed to make the home side bat again and they made a good start with Joe Denly timing the ball sweetly.

He pulled Chappell for six before taking two fours from his next over and with Compton again looking secure, the visitors reached tea on 48 for 0.

But seven balls into the evening session, Luis Reece broke through with one that Denly played slightly across to be lbw for 32.

Compton and Daniel Bell-Drummond shared a century stand in the first innings but this time only 13 runs were added before the Kent captain was drawn into playing at one that moved away and edged to first slip.

That was a big wicket for Derbyshire and they claimed another six overs later when Compton could not keep down a lifting ball from Pat Brown and Jewell dived forward at short leg to take the catch.

Muyeye and Leaning prevented further setbacks but it was another impressive day for Derbyshire.

Kent opener Ben Compton said: “I feel in a good space and have done for all of the year thus far, even in the times where I’ve missed out.

“It was nice to spend some time out there, obviously we are very behind in the game from the initial period where they got a massive score and so we have to try and get stuck in and bat as long as we can and keep them out there.

“Tomorrow we have to fight hard, every dot ball is a little small victory and hopefully at some point we can get past them. For the most part the pitch is pretty flat but there has been a ball in there that really accelerates off the pitch and we’ve seen that a few times with some of the nick offs we’ve had.

“So there is definitely something there and to be fair to them what they did is run in and hit the pitch really hard so credit to them for that.”

Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen said: “Today we brought our energy and consistency with the ball and I thought the guys were fantastic.

“Nudge (Anuj Dal) in particular in the first innings, the control he brought for us and with that came the wickets. 

“The fact that we’ve got five seamers in our ranks is what makes it a little bit easier. The guys can share the load  with Jack (Morley) and Dave (Lloyd) to help out so we have the bowlers to be able to go back-to-back and we want to make sure we’re clinical tomorrow.

“I’m really pleased with the way we bowled, obviously you always want more but the way we bowled was outstanding. We put the ball in the right areas, we challenged them, put them under pressure with some fast short pitched bowling at times and the spinners controlled the game for us.”

Picture supplied by David Griffin.