Kent tighten grip as Northeast century leaves Worcestershire on the ropes

Visitors lose three wickets with a day to come, and need a further 296 for victory

Worcestershire 217 (Lategan 59, Hose 50, Mahmud 4-68) and 84 for 3 need another 296 runs to beat Kent 238 and 358 (Northeast 132, Crawley 54, Taylor 4-68)

Kent look well placed to win their Rothesay County Championship match at Canterbury, after they reduced Worcestershire to 84 for three at stumps on day three, in pursuit of a target of 380.

Sam Northeast hit 132 as the promotion hopefuls made 358 in onerous batting conditions: Tom Taylor was Worcestershire's leading bowler with four for 68.

Matt Milnes then took two for 21 to help reduce the visitors to 39 for three, but Brett D'Oliveira and Adam Hose prevented further damage, reaching 24 and 23 respectively when bad light stopped play. The visitors need another 296 for victory.

Kent resumed on 197 for three after 12 overs were lost to rain and the first hour was attritional. Northeast was 96 not out at the start and the 25 minutes that followed brought new meaning to the term "nervous nineties", before he finally glanced Allison to third man for four, scoring his first century for Kent at Canterbury since returning to the club this season.

His partnership of 127 with Daniel Bell-Drummond was the biggest of the match so far and his partner passed 10,000 first-class runs for Kent, but he was out for 44 to the final ball of the session, driving the new ball back to Allison.

Northeast then went to the first ball he faced after lunch, his middle and leg stumps splayed by an inswinger from Taylor, but by then the lead was already near 300.

Grant Stewart blasted Allison for a six over midwicket before losing his middle stump to Taylor for 15. Keith Dudgeon made an eight-ball duck, nicking Taylor to Allison at first, but Milnes added 20 in a useful stand of 45 with Benjamin, before he was lbw to Adam Finch.

Beyers Swanepoel bowled Matt Quinn for one and the hosts were all out when Benjamin called Hasan through for an extra run after a misfield by Henry Cullen. Swanepeol was backing up and Cullen ran him out for 5, leaving Benjamin unbeaten on 36.

Daniel Lategan was the first Worcestershire batter to fall, lbw to Milnes for five.

Matt Quinn got Rehan Edavalath lbw for eight with his second ball after replacing Hasan at the Pavilion End and Jake Libby edged Milnes behind for 18.

At that point Worcestershire were in deep trouble but D'Oliveira and Hose stabilised things, before bad light stopped play with 11.5 overs remaining.