Kent reached the required number of batting bonus points against Lancashire to make it a purely results-based equation to stay in Division 1 of the LV= Insurance County Championship on Thursday.

Joe Denly’s 135 had helped Kent to 494, a first-innings lead of 167 runs, but any hopes of a quick three-day victory faded when Luke Wells and Keaton Jennings both made half-centuries in an unbroken opening partnership. They reached 69 and 52 not out, respectively, before bad light halted play at Canterbury.

Although Kent hauled in seven bonus points, they need to at least match Middlesex’s result against Nottinghamshire or they will be relegated and, with that game also looking too close to call, a gut-wrenching final day is in the offing.

Kent had begun day three in a significantly happier place than they’d been 24 hours earlier, on 345-4 in reply to Lancashire’s first-innings score of 327 and with Denly unbeaten on 105.

The first cheer of the morning came when Tom Bailey (2-97) bowled a no-ball, which took Kent to 350 and secured the sixth bonus point, which meant that as long as Kent did no worse than Middlesex, they’d stay in Division 1.

The partnership between Denly and Harry Finch had reached exactly 150 runs when the latter was bowled for 44 by George Balderson (4-69).

Lancashire’s attack was already weakened by the absence of Jack Blatherwick (1-62), who had bowled two beamers in an over on day two and their discipline continued to waver.

Tom Hartley (1-38), in for Will Williams (0-37), bowled the third beamer of the innings, a head-high slow delivery that Denly swatted for six to take Kent past 400. In the next over, the 108th, Balderson bowled a no-ball to bring up a half-century of extras.

Denly finally went when he was lbw to Balderson and Hartley bowled Joey Evison for 12, which exposed the tail.

Balderson sent Nathan Gilchrist’s middle-stump cartwheeling for an 11-ball duck but Aron Nijjar and Matt Quinn took Kent to 447-8 at lunch.

Quinn was on 22 when he was caught off a Bailey no-ball but he was caught behind two deliveries later without adding to his score.

Nijjar, however, hit the next ball for six and he had made 42 before he holed out off Bailey and was caught by Blatherwick, ending the innings.

At that point, the most optimistic scenario was a victory inside three days, but Lancashire’s openers Wells and Jennings had raced to 55 without loss when an early tea was taken due to a brief shower. By then, the mood around the Spitfire Ground was beginning to darken again.

Kent supporters have already seen this film too many times this season: hefty first-innings leads were squandered against Surrey and Nottinghamshire and the openers eroded the deficit offering barely a chance.

When Indian overseas spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (0-26) did find Jennings’ edge, he was dropped by Leaning when he was on 42 and bad light stopped play with 11 overs remaining, at precisely the moment the news came through that Middlesex had bowled out Nottinghamshire for a first-innings deficit of 18 runs.

“Everyone’s pretty positive,” said 23-year-old Gilchrist. “I think we’ve played some really good cricket over the last three days.

“We’ve shown what we can do and what maybe has been missing for most of the season and there’s been some really good performances from a few of the boys over the last few days.

“We’re looking forward to tomorrow and, obviously, we’re not sure what the result is going to be but we’ll push forward for a win as much as we can.

“I don’t think many of the boys have been looking too much at the other scores. We said at the beginning of the game that we just want to do what we can do and control what we can control.

“With the bonus points that we’ve got in this game, I’m not sure what the maths is but I think everyone is pretty optimistic that if we get a draw we should be OK.

“I think we bowled pretty well. It’s a tough wicket to bowl on now, it’s pretty flat and there’s not a huge amount in there for the seamers so it’s just putting the ball in the right area for as long as we can.

“For the spinner, there was a bit more in there, especially with the rough but we bowled pretty well as a unit and kept the scoring low for most of the innings.

“So, hopefully, we can continue that tomorrow.”