Centurions Jason Holder and Matthew Waite rewrote the record books for Worcestershire on day two of the Vitality County Championship Division One encounter with Kent at Canterbury before Joe Leach struck two early blows with the new ball.
Holder and Waite put on an unbroken 225 with some superb hitting as Worcestershire amassed 618-7 – their highest total for 18 years – before Club Captain Brett D’Oliveira declared on the stroke of tea.
It was Worcestershire’s most productive partnership for the eighth wicket against ANY opposition, surpassing the 184 by Steve Rhodes and Stuart Lampitt against Derbyshire at Kidderminster in 1991.
Holder was in particularly destructive form in completing his maiden century for Worcestershire in the final game of his current spell with the county.
His clean hitting peppered the boundary and brought him six sixes and seven fours in making 123 not out off 110 balls.
But Waite was the perfect foil when Holder cut loose and then himself pressed his foot on the accelerator in making an unbeaten 100 from 126 deliveries with three maximums and five fours.
Kent were powerless to halt the flood of runs as Holder and Waite 194 added between lunch and tea.
But also of prime importance were the contribution during the morning session of Adam Hose and Rob Jones when Worcestershire resumed on 319-5 after centurion Gareth Roderick and Kashif Ali had laid the first day foundations.
They added 74 with Hose hitting his highest score for Worcestershire – 90 – and deserving a maiden century and Jones giving him excellent support.
The sixth wicket pair built the foundations for the assault which came from Holder and Waite.
Worcestershire’s total was their best since scoring 618 all out versus Somerset at Taunton in 2006 and also the first time they had topped the 500 mark at Canterbury.
It was the joint 13th highest score in the club’s history and just nine short of Worcestershire’s record score versus Kent of 627-9 at Worcester in 1905.
Leach then removed Ben Compton and Zak Crawley in his first spell before Kent recovered to 111-2 by the close.
Worcestershire resumed on 308-5 and Hose and Jones achieved the first objective of securing a third batting bonus point with five balls to spare.
Hose, who was unbeaten on 50 overnight, did the bulk of the early scoring, leg glancing and square cutting Nathan Gilchrist for boundaries.
Jones, who came in at seven rather than his accustomed number four slot, got off the mark with a regal cover drive at Wes Agar’s expense.
Quick scoring was not straightforward on a slow pitch but Hose relieved the pressure in the bid to reach 350 in 110 overs with two boundaries in the 109th from Beyers Swanepoel.
Hose and Jones completed their 50 partnership in 94 balls.
The runs came fluently from Hose’s bat and he went past his previous best Worcestershire score of 85.
But he was denied a richly deserved century when on 90 he was trapped lbw by a ball of full length from Joey Evison.
Hose’s 159 ball knock contained 13 boundaries and he added 74 with Jones.
Jones moved onto 37 but then came down the wicket to his former Lancashire team-mate, Matt Parkinson, and edged to slip against the leg spinner at 393-7.
Holder showed aggressive intentions in lofting Parkinson for a straight six – the first of the game – as Worcestershire reached 424-7 by lunch.
But it was during the afternoon that the West Indian star cut loose, once he had found his range by pulling Joe Denley over mid wicket for a maximum.
Many of his big blows came straight down the ground against Parkinson and he completed a 61 ball fifty while Waite went to a 95 ball half century.
The century stand occupied 131 balls but it only required another 85 to bring up the 200 partnership.
Holder reached his hundred with a single off Jack Leaning and Waite brought up his century in similar fashion off Parkinson before the declaration.
Leach struck in his first over as Compton (0) edged a delivery to Jones who held onto a tumbling effort at third slip.
It became 19-2 when Crawley (6) was caught by keeper Roderick down the leg side.
But Daniel Bell-Drummond (54 not out) and Leaning (43 not out) suffered few alarms as Kent reached 111-2 by the close but still 507 runs in arrears.
Jason Holder said: “It was just a situation where things played into our hands. When we went out it was a case of us being pretty much on top of the game and it was about trying to press home the advantage.
“Happy that things flowed today and they were obviously a little tired after a long time in the field for them and the wicket was one where you could really cash in in terms of the pace of it.
“It was a lot of fun. Batting with Waitey is always fun. He is one of those characters that really keeps you in the game and energised.
“We were under instructions just to keep things going and Waitey was able to settle in and we all saw what he did once he had settled.
“Just happy that we have helped put the team in a really good position and hopefully tomorrow we can get a few more wickets.”
Matthew Waite said: “It is lovely batting with Jason. We struck up quite a nice relationship and it was great to put on 200 plus runs.
“At the start, I just tried to give Jason the strike as much as I could and came into my own towards the back end a little bit.
“It is going to be tough to force a result but we are all up for the challenge and we will give it our all and see what happens.”
