Kent (564) lead Gloucestershire (438 & 37-5) by 89 runs after day three of County Championship game at Canterbury

A dramatic final half-hour saw Kent move to within touching distance of their first LV= Insurance County Championship win of the season on Tuesday.

The home side reduced Gloucestershire to 37-5 as New Zealander Jacob Duffy took three wickets in four balls on his debut, leaving the visitors still 89 runs behind with just five wickets remaining.

It was a far cry from a day that was largely dominated by Kent duo Jordan Cox and Jack Leaning who both made centuries in a record Kent fourth-wicket stand against Gloucestershire.

Kent began day three on 232-3 and added 105 runs without alarm in the first session.

Cox won the race to three figures with a flamboyant reverse-sweep for four off Miles Hammond. In the next over Leaning, who’d been ahead of his colleague for most of the session, scrambled a single to bring up his seventh first-class hundred.

A cut shot from Cox off Ajeet Dale saw Kent move into the lead, and the duo then passed the previous fourth-wicket record of 233 set by Colin Cowdrey and Brian Luckhurst in 1962, before the stand finally came to an end at 254 when Leaning (128) pulled Zafar Gohar to Ollie Price at square leg.

But the game quickly moved on at pace after tea with the visitors' Tom Price taking a hat-trick on his way to career-best figures of 5-53.

Tom Price had Cox caught behind for 158 and then sent George Linde’s off stump flying next ball. After a maiden over from Gohar, Tom Price returned to trap Grant Stewart lbw for his hat-trick as Kent went from 511-4 to 511-7.

But Kent regained the initiative when Matt Milnes joined Sam Billings and the duo put on a rapid 53 in just over eight overs.

Milnes’ 37 included successive sixes and a four from Gohar in the final over before the second new ball was