Kent (621 all out) beat bottom side Northamptonshire (237 & 369 all out) by an innings and 15 runs in County Championship Division 1

Kent’s spinners finally overcame a late flourish from the Northamptonshire tail to wrap up an innings victory at Wantage Road in LV= Insurance County Championship Division 1 on Wednesday.

Joe Denly claimed four wickets and Hamid Qadri three as the home side were bowled out for 369, despite an entertaining ninth-wicket stand of 70 between Ben Sanderson and Jack White.

The home pair both registered career-best performances in first-class cricket, with Sanderson hitting 46 before White, batting at number 10, hammered a maiden half-century from 68 balls.

He was the last man out for 59 to seal Kent’s first Championship victory since the opening round of the campaign - when they defeated the same opponents by seven wickets at Canterbury.

It comes with Kent Spitfires also presently on a six-game T20 Blast winning run, too, ahead of Friday’s sold-out game against Sussex Sharks at Canterbury and their group-stage-ending trip to Somerset two days later.

Jack Leaning, who has now replaced Sam Billings as Kent’s red-ball skipper for the rest of the summer, said: “To get a maximum-points win is just the icing on the cake – it carries on that nice run of form we’re on from T20 in the last couple of weeks.

“Championship wins are always hard-fought and I’m really happy for the boys.

“There was no hiding from the fact this was a game we needed to win. It doesn’t matter what part of the game you contribute to, every contribution makes up to a four-day win and I want us to keep that mentality going forward.

“It was a brilliant toss to lose because I was going to have a bat, as well. We managed to bowl them out pretty cheaply on a good wicket and we really made hay with the bat.

“Deebs [Daniel Bell-Drummond] will get all the plaudits, as he