Denly: Probably my best innings ever

Joe Denly said he felt his marathon innings of 227 at Worcester was probably his best ever.

The 31-year-old Kent Cricket Academy graduate achieved the highest ever score by a Kent batsman against Worcestershire, beating Leslie Ames’ 201 not out at Gillingham in 1937 and 201 at New Road two years later.

He said: “It was great to spend so much time out there. The pitch was pretty good for batting on. The biggest challenge was probably the heat and trying to stay cool.

“I’m obviously delighted. It is probably the best I felt for a while, probably ever, in the middle especially yesterday with the way I struck it and then coming in this morning and just throughout the day.

“It was a good pitch to bat on and you got real rewards hitting through the line, cover drives and stuff like that.

“It was just about trying to bat as long as I could, every run we got in front put them under more pressure. That was the plan.

“In the circumstances, it was quite an important knock and it was about ticking things off session by session, ball by ball, and we are in a really good position now.

“Our bowlers have been on fire all year so hopefully they can come in tomorrow and cause some trouble.”