INSIDE COUNTY CRICKET: Daniel Bell-Drummond on making history

900 runs, nine hours… and two pints of Guinness! Kent batsman Daniel Bell-Drummond on making history, with a little help from their No 11

• Bell-Drummond became the fourth Kent man to hit 300 in a fortnight ago
• The milestone was at risk when Arshdeep Singh started to attack the bowlers
• He had watched his friend Sean Dickson hit 300 and wanted to do the same 

Imagine being within touching distance of a triple century but stranded at the non-striker’s end, relying on your team’s No 11 to see out the over and get you back on strike. Terrifying, right?

That’s the predicament Daniel Bell-Drummond found himself in against Northamptonshire in the County Championship two weeks ago.

In nearly nine hours at the crease, the immovable Kent No 3 compiled a historic innings of the highest order.

Bell-Drummond ground the toiling Northamptonshire attack into the dirt not with explosive hitting but with good, old-fashioned batting — namely a solid defence and clever strike rotation. The fact only 110 of his 300 runs were scored in boundaries tells you everything.

In a stand of 318 for the second wicket with Tawanda Muyeye, who made 179, he skipped to a century and then breezed to a double ton. By the time Bell-Drummond had made 290, Kent were six wickets down. But three quick dismissals early on day three brought their final batsman, Arshdeep Singh, to the crease with Bell-Drummond on 293.

Daniel Bell-Drummond became the fourth Kent man to hit 300 in an innings against Northamptonshire

The milestone was in doubt when Arshdeep Singh arrived at the crease and started to attack

The two players high-fived as they passed on Bell-Drummond’s way to his 300 in the game

While Singh is a tidy left-arm fast bowler, a batter he is not. The Indian averages 14 in First-Class cricket and plays in a manner which makes Bazball seem conservative.

‘There were a few things going through my head,’ Bell-Drummond tells Mail Sport of the moment Singh came out to the middle and started swinging for the hills. ‘I was obviously thinking, “What is he doing?” but I was so shattered that I wasn’t really concentrating on him. I did tell him, “Stick with me here”. But of course he was just going to do his own thing.

‘It was nerve-wracking when he tried to start hitting sixes. I’m glad he stayed there because he got out the next ball after I went to 300! It was very funny.’

With a simple jab into the leg side, Bell-Drummond reached his triple hundred, becoming only the fourth Kent player to achieve the milestone. The club’s history books are a fitting place for the 29-year-old who is Kent through-and-through, having joined the club’s academy aged six.

Bell-Drummond went into the match on the back of a century against Middlesex in the T20 Blast

He is now injured, and frustrated not to be able to cash in on his positive form against Warwickshire this week

While he has long been one of the premier white-ball openers on the county circuit, Bell-Drummond had experienced an indifferent start to 2023 in the County Championship.

But just two days on from making 111 from 58 deliveries against Middlesex in the Vitality Blast at Canterbury, Bell-Drummond was recalled to the side and back in his whites at the County Ground.

‘I wanted to make a statement having been dropped,’ he admits. ‘I wouldn’t say I was feeling like I never have done before at the crease. But once I got in, I said, “Whatever happens, they’re going to have to get me out, I’m not going to give it away”.’

Bell-Drummond jokes the toughest part of his innings was being on 271 not out overnight and dealing with noise from off the pitch ahead of his final push.

He says: ‘Everyone was messaging saying, “I’m going to be watching tomorrow when you get your 300”, and I’m thinking, “Nothing is guaranteed here!”’

Among the names he joined in the county’s exclusive 300 club was former team-mate and good friend Sean Dickson. Bell-Drummond had the best seat in the house for Dickson’s record-breaking innings when he smashed 318, also against Northants, at Beckenham in 2017.

Bell-Drummond’s friend and former team-mate Sean Dickson, now of Somersert, rang him to congratulate him

‘I opened the batting with him and got 49… I thought I did quite well!’ he jokes. ‘But Joe Denly got 182 and Sean got 318. I remember watching from the balcony at Beckenham when he got the triple. I couldn’t have been prouder and I thought, “Damn, I want to do that one day”.

‘We’ve been through a lot of tough times facing the new ball, sometimes on tricky wickets, and I’m glad I can be in the record books with him after spending so much time at the crease with him. He rang me straight afterwards.’

You’d think celebrations would be in order after an innings of that magnitude, especially as it helped Kent to an emphatic victory. But the relentless nature of the domestic schedule meant that festivities were low-key.

Bell-Drummond reveals that he enjoyed a couple of Guinnesses in the hotel bar after his achievement

‘I just had a couple of Guinnesses in the hotel bar,’ Bell-Drummond reveals. ‘Everyone was so tired. I was just trying to reply to messages most of the evening. Then we had to go back out for day four and field again.’

A hamstring strain kept Bell-Drummond out of Kent’s match with Warwickshire this week and while he was frustrated not to be able to cash in on his rich vein of form, it has given him time to reflect on his innings of a lifetime.

‘Sometimes you don’t realise the gravity of things,’ he says. ‘The love I was shown and the messages I received from family and friends meant so much.

‘It was a fairytale… 300 on the dot. It was a day I will never, ever forget.’

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