Kent’s spinners finally overcame a late flourish from the Northamptonshire tail to wrap up an innings victory at Wantage Road in LV= Insurance County Championship Division 1 on Wednesday.

Joe Denly claimed four wickets and Hamid Qadri three as the home side were bowled out for 369, despite an entertaining ninth-wicket stand of 70 between Ben Sanderson and Jack White.

The home pair both registered career-best performances in first-class cricket, with Sanderson hitting 46 before White, batting at number 10, hammered a maiden half-century from 68 balls.

He was the last man out for 59 to seal Kent’s first Championship victory since the opening round of the campaign - when they defeated the same opponents by seven wickets at Canterbury.

It comes with Kent Spitfires also presently on a six-game T20 Blast winning run, too, ahead of Friday’s sold-out game against Sussex Sharks at Canterbury and their group-stage-ending trip to Somerset two days later.

Jack Leaning, who has now replaced Sam Billings as Kent’s red-ball skipper for the rest of the summer, said: “To get a maximum-points win is just the icing on the cake – it carries on that nice run of form we’re on from T20 in the last couple of weeks.

“Championship wins are always hard-fought and I’m really happy for the boys.

“There was no hiding from the fact this was a game we needed to win. It doesn’t matter what part of the game you contribute to, every contribution makes up to a four-day win and I want us to keep that mentality going forward.

“It was a brilliant toss to lose because I was going to have a bat, as well. We managed to bowl them out pretty cheaply on a good wicket and we really made hay with the bat.

“Deebs [Daniel Bell-Drummond] will get all the plaudits, as he should do, but credit to T [Tawanda Muyeye] for his first hundred. He’s really knocked the door down to earn his chance and, since he got in the first-team, whether it be white or red ball, he’s really taken it on.

“To put 621 on the board is a formidable score – for them to have to get nearly 400 just to get level, we always knew we were going to be able to drive the game.

“No side’s going to roll over and just give up and Northants are a spirited team.

“We had to fight like hell to get those last few wickets at the end, but that makes it all the sweeter.”

As they had done for most of the previous afternoon, Kent initially kept faith with an all-spin attack, which paid off after only 10 balls of day four when Denly (4-164) had Saif Zaib snapped up at short leg without adding to his overnight 43.

Tom Taylor displayed attacking intent, clubbing both Denly and Jack Leaning (1-35) to the leg-side boundary and Lewis McManus attempted to follow suit as he latched onto a long hop from Qadri (3-51), only to pick out the square-leg fielder.

Taylor found an unexpected ally in Sanderson, who batted with freedom and rattled up a string of boundaries in their lively partnership of 38, which prompted Kent to take the new ball and entrust it to their seamers.

It made little difference to Sanderson, who thrashed Indian overseas bowler Arshdeep Singh (1-64) twice to the cover fence, but Australian Wes Agar (0-40) duly provided the breakthrough – albeit in unusual fashion - deflecting Sanderson’s drive onto the stumps to run-out Taylor at the non-striker’s end.

However, the eighth-wicket partnership was surpassed by the ninth, with White slamming Denly back over his head for four and unveiling a rarely seen range of shots, including a reverse sweep, to lift Northamptonshire’s total beyond 300.

Sanderson stroked Denly for a couple on the leg-side to bring up the 50-run partnership – and the highest score of his 15-year county career – but he missed the opportunity of a maiden half-century. He took a swing off 22-year-old Qadri and edged behind to Jordan Cox.

White, however, made no such mistake, dispatching the leg-spinner cleanly over the top for a boundary to bring up his personal landmark before Denly finally had him caught behind to seal Kent’s success.

Kent are eighth in the table while Northamptonshire remain bottom.

Earlier in the game, a record-breaking 300 not out by Daniel Bell-Drummond had helped the visitors post a huge 621 all out.