[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Three

Morning: The sun continued to shine on Canterbury, and inspired a quick double from Matthew Waite, who got a wobbling delivery to beat the edge of Daniel Bell-Drummond and kiss his off-stump for 67, then removed Joe Denly for a fifth-ball duck with a somewhat generous LBW decision. Those two wickets were, however, the only breakthroughs of the session as Kent reached lunch on 179-4, trailing by 439.

Afternoon: This venerable venue continued to offer Worcestershire nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat, but the Pears chipped away regardless, and once more it was Waite to reap the session's sole reward - Harry Finch caught at slip for 26 - as Jack Leaning dug in to shepherd the hosts to 250-5 at tea, trailing by 368.

Evening: Still the bowlers refused to give up, and in the second over after the resumption Nathan Smith struck to have Joey Evison caught behind for 27, the tail-ender bottom-edging a short wide ball that nipped back. Every such scalp during the day brought ten minutes of excitement and optimism, and it was very much the job of Jack Leaning to damp such enthusiasm right back down as he ground out a tenacious, game-saving century. Still, in the last half-hour's slowly fading light the leg-spin of Brett D'Oliveira removed Beyers Swanepoel LBW for 54, and in the penultimate over of the day Kashif Ali hit the blockhole in front of leg-stump with a wicked leg-break whose turn beat a wild swipe from Wes Agar and removed his middle stump for 6. 362-8 at close, Kent trailed by 256 with no sign of Worcestershire giving up hope, but any chance of victory was utterly dependent on severe final-day deterioration in a pitch showing no evidence of breaking up.