Northants 143 (Keogh 64, Singh 4-35) and 107 for 7 (Bartlett 54*, Dudgeon 4-32) need 153 runs to beat Kent 231 (Muyeye 72, Leaning 40, Weatherall 3-32) and 171 (Evison 52, Compton 36, Weatherall 3-38)
Keith Dudgeon had originally planned on joining Kent for the 2024 season before NOC issues ruled that out. A year on, he finds himself at the club as one of two replacements, alongside Pakistan Test seamer Kashif Ali, to cover for Wes Agar through to May, who was prescribed rest following the end of the Australian summer.
Even moonlighting for Agar owed a lot to a referral from a high-profile figure within the English game. Joe Root, having spent time with Dudgeon during an SA20 stint with Paarl Royals, thought he had the skills to succeed in county cricket. His overall record was impressive enough, with 226 red ball wickets at 26.31. With Kent searching for bowlers, Root recommended Dudgeon to England teammate Zak Crawley, who passed it on,
The lesson to learn after just two days of the 2025 season is that networking works. Because whatever thoughts there might have been that the 29-year-old South African is an afterthought overseas, the record was set straight on Saturday evening at Wantage Road.The broad-shouldered seamer took Kent to victory's door against Northamptonshire with a late spell of three wickets in nine deliveries that leaves his new side needing just three more wickets on day three for victory in their Division Two opener. An uncapped Protea he may be, but this was a top-quality fare.
That day two saw 20 wickets across three innings tells an accurate story of a crapshoot of an opening fixture on a spicy pitch that would have done plenty without the plethora of batting errors. But Dudgeon's late burst - which might have been four wickets in 11 balls, and a first five-wicket haul for the club, had a vociferous LBW appeal against Justin Broad been given - was a gut punch to Northamptonshire.
At 54 for 2 in pursuit of 260, they looked to have stumbled across some calm amid the chaos of the last two days. Now, closing on 107 for 7, they rest knowing defeat awaits them on Sunday, with only George Bartlett's unbeaten 54 to hold on to. Bartlett's presence should be considered a blessing given he was shelled on 17 by Bell-Drummond at third slip.
"We've had a struggle this year with the Kookaburra (balls) back home, and slower seam conditions at my home ground, Boland Park," Dudgeon said of South African seamers over their domestic summer. His seven wickets for Boland came at 55.28. Just 20 overs with a Dukes in April have already reaped five at 13.00.
"I'm well aware that they're not all like this," he added, referring to the surface and conditions, having clocked a few heavy scores around the country. "I know the hard work is only coming, so we need to stay humble."
He need not worry, because humility has a way of finding this modern iteration of Kent, even when they are in the ascendancy. They needed just 40 minutes to wrap up Northamptonshire's first innings, with Jaskaran Singh doubling his two dismissals from the night before to finish with career-best figures of 4 for 35. But having worked hard to establish a lead of 88, the visiting attack were back in action after the tea break, with 29 overs remaining in the day's play.
What happened in between was down to a super-sized version of the first day's mistakes. A collapse of 5 for 33 in their first innings was "bettered" by a rather inexplicable 7 for 49 in the second, of which four - all caught through attacking shots - should have been avoided.
The first of those was a tame bunt to cover by Crawley, this time for 31 after losing two stumps for just one 24 hours earlier. That it set up the cascade was no fault of Crawley's; England's erratic opener had compiled nicely up to that point, dovetailing with Ben Compton to take the opening stand to 66 just after lunch.
But when a Broad length delivery sat up, deserving to be smoked through the off side, Crawley snatched at the chance, gifting a simple catch to Saif Zaib at cover. An over later, Zaib was in more or less the exact same patch of field - this time fielding at midwicket - as Bell-Drummond flicked to him for a three-ball nought, and was immediately followed back to the pavilion by Tawanda Muyeye.
The reaction to Muyeye's dismissal for a golden duck said it all, though it was as much down to seeing off a batter who peeled off a composed 72 on day one as the quality of delivery from Raphael Weatherall. An inswinging yorker pinne the right-hander's front pad on its way towards to the base of leg stump.
Yet again, it was Weatherall's introduction that ripped the guts out of Kent's line-up. Jack Leaning survived the hat-trick ball, but the former England U19 quick eventually picked up his third, ripping out Compton's off stump to cap a resolute stay at 101 minutes.
Weatherall's 3 for 38, combined with the first day's career-best effort of 32 not only doubled his overall first-class tally. To have gone two days in a row showcased the important technical changes made over the winter following a stress fracture of his lower back.
Aged 20, his pace - 81/82mph according to analysts at Wantage Road - and ability to hammer the same length to right- and left-handers (including from around the wicket to the latter, which did for Compton) is a huge upside. The energy provided was harnessed beyond his own spell to allow Northants a route back through the seven-wicket flurry spanning 16.3 overs.
The problem, however, was despite Kent's missteps, their lead had made it to 203. With Joey Evison the designated fourth emergency service since moving to Canterbury in 2022, another rescue act was cooking. A gutsy 52 - his 10th first-class half-century for the club - dragged Kent to 171. Evison was the last to fall attempting his first shot in anger, failing to clear Zaib on the fence at deep midwicket.
Undoubtedly the crucial part of that late resistance was an eight-wicket partnership of 36 with Dudgeon, which meant Northamptonshire's target for victory would require them to register the highest innings of the match. Considering that stand was greater than anything the hosts mustered in their first innings, it was clear who were in the ascendancy going into the tea interval.
Those odds shrunk at the end of the second over of the evening session. Ricardo Vasconcelos decided to leave a good length ball from Dudgeon, delivered tight to the stumps from over the wicket, despite the fact the right-armer has been consistently moving the ball in to the left-hander, and lost his off stump.
It was the first of three bad leaves. The third - Broad wearing one on the pad from Gilchrist - closed out the day's play. The second, however, was a work of art from Grant Stewart.
James Sales had judged the line of the Italian seamer's delivery to be wide of off stump out of the hand. A wicked deviation sent it back towards its intended target, kissing the middle-and-off bail gently enough that even standing umpire Rob Bailey had to double-take when Sales calmly strode off.
Stewart had already seen off home skipper Luke Procter. And when Rob Keogh, Northamptonshire's first innings top-scorer with a 64 that only ended this morning, became the second of three catches to be pouched by Leaning at second slip, all in Dudgeon's late spell, all reasonable hope was lost.
