Vasconcelos 'over the moon' after superb century steers Northants out of trouble

Ricardo Vasconcelos was 'over the moon' after hitting a superb century for Northants against Kent on day three of the LV= County Championship clash.
Ricardo VasconcelosRicardo Vasconcelos
Ricardo Vasconcelos

The opener made his way to a hugely impressive 154 from 209 balls as the County finished the day on 301 for five, 154 runs behind Kent.

Rob Keogh remains unbeaten on 66.

“I’m over the moon with how the day went and the score," Vasconcelos.

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"It's a great way to set the season going. This is a nice platform to kick on from.

“I think I've matured the few years that I've been here. I like to keep it quite simple if the ball’s in that area, I'm going to play it whether it be ball one, or ball 100.

"If it's full I'm going to drive it, if it's short I'm going to try to pull it.

"But today with the sweepers out and the position we were in, it called for something a little bit different just to soak up a bit of pressure.

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"They bowled really well, bowled tight lines, didn’t really give any bad balls. So, it was just about trying to keep that scoreboard ticking.

"Rob Keogh played really well. He absorbed a lot of pressure.

“First thing in the morning is kick on and try to get as many points as we can and then we'll play the situation from there.

"There's still plenty of cricket to be played.”

Kent had reduced Northants to 135 for four, but Vasconcelos and Keogh helped the hosts rebuild.

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And Kent batsman Jack Leaning said: “It was probably a little bit disappointing we didn't get a couple more wickets, but credit to the Northants lads, they built a really strong partnership and played well on what is still a really good pitch even though the conditions are pretty cold and putrid.

"Fair play to them, I think they played the better cricket rather than us.

"Ideally tomorrow we'll get maximum bowling points.

"Just come back and go hard in the morning and see where we get. If we can get a couple of early wickets and sneak a bit of a lead, you never know, but it’s probably quite unlikely with how good the pitch is to force a result but stranger things have happened.”