Two late wickets kept Kent in contention after visitors Northamptonshire had the better of day three at Canterbury on Wednesday.

The hosts failed to build a substantial lead after losing their last five wickets for just 33 runs.

An impressive 158 partnership between Ryan Rickelton and Jimmy Neesham put Northants into a dominant position but Kent struck twice after tea to keep their hopes alive.

Resuming on 287-5, Jordan Cox was the first man to go, having added just nine to his overnight score of 63 when he left a straight one to Jack White (4-62) and was bowled to leave Kent 302-6.

George Linde then edged a Ben Sanderson (4-63) delivery through the slips for the four that put Kent in the lead but it was his only scoring shot as he nicked the same bowler behind in his next over.

Grant Stewart went for a seven, hooking Sanderson to White at fine leg, and when Sam Billings edged White to Ricardo Vasconcelos at first slip for 44, Kent had slipped to 335-9. Two balls later, Matt Milnes holed out to Sanderson and was caught by Josh Cobb for four.

Northamptonshire wiped out Kent's lead either side of lunch but promptly lost Emilio Gay to a leading edge to Grant Stewart, caught by Ben Compton.

Stewart then removed Vasconcelos, caught low down by Billings for 19 to reduce Northants to 38-2.

With Luke Procter suffering from a foot injury, Rob Keogh was the next man in. When he was given out caught behind for 13, trying to hook Daniel Bell-Drummond, Kent appeared to be on the charge.

But Rickelton and Neesham turned the game around with a stand that lasted over two hours.

While Rickelton paced himself, Neesham thrashed his way past fifty before eventually getting caught and bowled by Joe Denly nine runs short of a debut hundred.

Josh Cobb then came in for a quickfire innings of 26, which ended when Zak Crawley held a sharp slip catch off Linde, before Rickelton reached three figures just before the close with a straight drive off Stewart.

All three results are possible but Kent have a new ball available at the start of day four and know quick wickets are essential if they are to have any hope of chasing an attainable target.

Bell-Drummond said: "If we can try and do what they did to us today, get five wickets before lunch and get chasing around 300 it would obviously be a very good game.

“We were pretty positive coming into today, but those things happen and we’ve just got to go and do it to them tomorrow. They collapsed in their first innings so it’s potentially one of those wickets where if you keep the dots up and dry them up then wickets could potentially fall in a heap.

“Grant bowled really well, credit to him, he’s a very skilful bowler and he made two huge breakthroughs for us. To get them 60 for two or whatever it was we were definitely in the game but Neesham played a good knock for them with Rickelton.

“Whatever the target is ultimately we respect them, they’re a very good team, they won’t make it easy for us and we’ve got to get the breakthrough tomorrow morning to make the win a possibility.”