Luke Procter and Calvin Harrison both hit career-best scores of 261 not out and 153 respectively, as Northamptonshire declared 684 for two against Kent, before reducing the hosts to a lamentable 119 for six.

When Nathan McSweeney hit an unbeaten 101 it meant the visitors’ top four had all scored centuries for the first time ever, and Procter’s score beat the previous record for a Northants player in this fixture, the 208 made by Ben Duckett at Beckenham in 2016.

The hosts then lost a cluster of wickets, including England’s Zak Crawley, who was bowled for 26, leaving them trailing by 565 at the stumps.

Bad light saw 12 overs lost from the morning session and Northants resumed on 409 for one, with Procter on 131 and Harrison on 124.

Kent looked no more threatening than they had on day one. The second ball of the morning, from Jas Singh, went for four wides and Keith Dudgeon started with a no ball. They only looked like taking a wicket once the visitors started to hit out and Harrison was the first and only man to go when he holed out to Joey Evison and was caught on the boundary by Tawanda Muyeye.

Procter reached his first ever double-century when he steered Muyeye through backward square for four and when he charged down the wicket to Jaydn Denly, Chris Benjamin missed the chance to stump him. He was on 247 and two balls later he smote Denly for four to pass 250.

When McSweeney pulled Denly for six, the visitors declared, just 38 short of the 722 for 6 they scored at the St. Lawrence last year, the record for any side against Kent.

Harry Conway then removed Ben Compton for six, caught behind in the fifth over to leave Kent on 11 for one at tea.

Ben Sanderson had Sam Northeast caught behind for a 14-ball duck on his second St. Lawrence debut and after Conway switched to the Nackington Road end, he bowled Crawley off-stump for 26 with one that jagged back.Muyeye looked well set until Sanderson had him caught by James Sales at backward point off a leading edge.

Sales then strangled Daniel Bell-Drummond for 19 and the sense of farce deepened when the first night-watch, Matt Milnes, was run out by McSweeney from point, off the first ball he faced after he was sent by back by Joey Evison. The second night-watch, Jas Singh did survive till stumps but Kent will need to improve drastically on Sunday if they’re too avoid a three-day defeat.

Northamptonshire’s Nathan McSweeney said: “I think after reviewing the first game against Lancashire, we wanted to make sure that we threw the first punch this game. We obviously fought really well last week, but we were behind the eight ball and fighting to save the game for most of that first fixture.

“So for us to come out here, start really well yesterday, with all the top four spending a lot of time out there and the skipper leading from the front with 250, and then today, tonight, to finish like that, to have them six foot on a pretty good batting surface, the bowlers bowled fantastic. They hardly missed their areas and created chances.

“The captain had a good day, he just didn’t take a wicket, which he looked likely as well. That comes when the guys down the other end. It’s not always the guy that builds the pressure takes the wickets. For us as a group, if we can keep building pressure from both ends, that’ll happen more and more.

“It’s not every day (that you break records). And I think you obviously get wickets that are probably bowler-friendly, so it’s important that we can get some confidence. The wicket that was in our favour, but you’ve still got to go out there and make the runs.”

Kent’s Adam Hollioake said: “It hasn’t been great for us, has it? I think it’s a good wicket for batting on, but we didn’t bowl well, we never really settled on a plan. You only have to look at the scoreboard to know that we haven’t created enough pressure.

“We’ve gone on far too many runs for over and they’ve got a big total on the board. It’s a good wicket we’re playing on, but when a side’s got a total like that, obviously there’s scoreboard pressure. But again, we’ve got in and we haven’t really made it count.

“All in all, it’s been a pretty disappointing performance for us. I know they tried their hardest, but we’re professional athletes, so we were expected to do that. I guess probably we just haven’t stuck to our plans. We went with the short ball and hit both sides of the wicket, all the stuff we’ve worked on. It hasn’t gone right.

“We talked about it last year, when you faced situations similar to this, about scoreboard pressure and the effects it can have. It’s a big score on the board. They’ve scored far too quickly. Not only have they got scoreboard pressure, but they’ve got time as well.”

Picture supplied by Nick Dillam.