England opener Zak Crawley posted his highest score for Kent on day three of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division 1 clash with Essex on Saturday.

The 25-year-old scored 170 in just 183 balls as Kent reached 342-7 in reply to Essex’s 451-5 declared at Canterbury.

“I’m really pleased,” said Crawley. “The key to the innings, I reckon, was just staying very relaxed. I’ve been probably a bit too tense at the crease recently.

“I felt really relaxed and tried to play my natural game and it worked, which was nice.

“It’s a really good cricket wicket. When you bowl well on it, it’s tough to play and when we bowled well at times it seemed tough for their batters. When you didn’t bowl well, it was really nice to score.

“It came on well, there was a bit of pace in the wicket and a bit of turn towards the end there as well, so it’s a shame the first two days got rained off because it could have set up a nice little finish, but we’ve still got to work hard to get the draw.

“Simon Harmer started bowling really well and was getting a bit more turn so I had to rein it in a little bit and score my runs from the seamers’ end. They were also giving me the one towards the end and trying to get me out of my rhythm, which they did pretty well all day.

“Joey Evison batted really well as well because it was important to get past the follow-on target.

“It’s always nice to score runs and enjoy the game of cricket. That’s something that I’ve probably lacked in the last year, that enjoyment.

“At the end of the day it’s just a game, that’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last couple of weeks actually and I’m just going to play every game like I’m playing in the back garden and it worked today.

“Hopefully I can stick with that mindset because I think that’s the way to go forward. You can get too tense and that’s not going to be me at my best.”

Earlier Nick Browne hit 159 before Essex declared having secured maximum batting points. Tom Westley made 148 and Michael Pepper was unbeaten on 52, but with 118 overs lost to the weather on days one and two and the forecast for Sunday looking bleak, the draw now looks the most likely outcome.

For the first time in the match the Spitfire Ground was bathed in sunshine when play began and Essex immediately went on the attack. Westley drove the first ball of the day through the covers for four but he subsequently perished to an astounding piece of fielding by Daniel Bell-Drummond.

When he hooked Conor McKerr to the square leg boundary it looked almost certain to be a six, but Bell-Drummond managed to grab the ball in mid-air and flick it back over to the rope to Ben Compton. It was a moment that rivalled Jordan Cox’s miraculous leap in the 2021 Vitality Blast final, the difference being that it wasn’t filmed and only a few hundred people in the ground were lucky enough to witness it.

A mini-collapse ensued as Wes Agar had Paul Walter caught behind for eight, before McKerr took a sharp return catch to get Matt Critchley for one. Leaning eventually had Browne caught on the long off boundary by Jordan Cox.

Openers Crawley and Ben Compton moved cautiously to 13-0 at lunch, after which the former launched an aggressive counter-attack, driving, cutting and even reverse-sweeping his way to his fifth red-ball century for Kent and his first since his 105 against Hampshire in September 2020.

He smashed Simon Harmer (4-141) back over his head for six to pass 50 and pulled the same bowler through mid-wicket to get to three figures, but an opening stand of 162 ended when Harmer bowled Compton for 46 with a ball that trickled off the foot of his bat before hitting the stumps.

Harmer nearly had Crawley when he was on 130, but Browne put him down at short leg. Harmer did trap Bell-Drummond in front for 23 with the final ball of the afternoon session and then had Jack Leaning caught by a tumbling Paul Walter at mid-wicket.

Cox was on 21 when he was dropped by Ben Allison off Doug Bracewell, but he failed to cash in, driving the same bowler to Harmer at backward point having added just six more.

Harmer then bowled Sam Billings middle stump for one and having passed his previous highest score for Kent of 168 versus Glamorgan in 2018, Crawley was finally caught behind off Jamie Porter, with Kent still 14 sort of the follow-on target.

Joey Evison subsequently edged one past gully to get the hosts within 150 and although Hamid Qadri was caught behind off Matt Critchley for 16, Evison and McKerr batted through to stumps.