REPORT | Madsen and Reece score unbeaten centuries at Canterbury

Wayne Madsen and Luis Reece both made centuries as Derbyshire piled on the runs in their Rothesay County Championship match with Kent at Canterbury, reaching 389 for two at the end of day one.

Opener Reece batted all day and was unbeaten on 123 while Madsen was 147 not out, having passed 1,000 Championship runs for the summer. By stumps their partnership was 231, a Derbyshire record for the third wicket against Kent.

Reece’s fellow opener Aneurin Donald chipped in with 55 as the home bowlers struggled to make any impact.

It says something about the way Kent’s season has gone that the loudest applause of the day came midway through the afternoon session, when it was announced the coffee machine in the Lime Tree cafe had been fixed.

Third-placed Derbyshire chose to bat against a side guaranteed to finish bottom of Division Two and the morning session went to form, with the visitors reaching 108 for 1 at lunch.

The sole victim was Donald, who was bowled off-stump by Michael Cohen, shortly after he’d driven him through the covers to bring up his 50.

When play resumed Reece tickled a Grant Stewart delivery down the leg side for four to reach his half-century and although Matt Parkinson had Harry Came stumped by Harry Finch for 35 at the start of the next over, Madsen joined Reece and reached four-figures for the first-class season, the eighth time he’s reached that milestone.

Kent were docked six points for a slow over rate in their last game with Leicestershire but despite, or perhaps because of this, there was widespread incredulity when the tea interval was taken on time, for the first time it what seemed like an eon, with the visitors on 238 for two.

Madsen took a single off Cohen to reach 50 and then dumped Jaydn Denly over cow corner for six.

Reece scampered a single off Parkinson to reach his century, before Madsen played a dreadful shot to the very next delivery, skying Parkinson straight to Ben Dawkins, who somehow dropped him.

Madsen took two from a Stewart no ball to get to three figures, then overtook his partner before hitting a six off Corey Flintoff that broke Derbyshire’s record stand for the third wicket, the 202 put on by Chris Adams and Dean Jones at this venue in 1997.

Madsen nearly perished in the final over when he hit Parkinson to long on, but Stewart couldn’t pick the flight of the ball and the chance went begging.

Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen said: “It’s nice to get to the thousand runs but it’s especially nice to have a day like we’ve had today. We haven’t batted much of late with the weather that we’ve had over the last few games, but today we got opportunity today to go and play like that and I’m extremely proud of the guys who got a hit in the middle today.

“Aneurin got things going, he set it up nicely with that quick start and I think the intent that he showed is something that we spoke about with him.

“He was able to be himself, be positive and go and get us off to a good start and that’s exactly what he did. He set it up for us today and Reece obviously played an incredible knock, he was nice and solid at the other end and he just went through at his tempo and played a fantastic knock.

“One of the things that we discussed out there was keeping the intent and trying to score because we obviously want to try and get as many bonus points as we can.

“Equally we want to score as many runs as possible, try and bat once in this game and then bowl Kent out twice. That’s the way we’re going to win this game of cricket.

“It’s tricky because you get to this age and start knocking off the big numbers but the focus is to try and make sure I set us up and help contribute towards the position that we’re in.”