Kent skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond led their fightback on day two of their Rothesay County Championship Division 2 clash against Middlesex at Lord’s.
Bell-Drummond, who averaged nine with the bat going into Kent’s second innings, scored his first red-ball ton for more than a year. He finished unbeaten on 103 as Kent reached 226-4 at the close, a lead of 117.
He shared a second-wicket stand of 109 with England’s Zak Crawley, who was dropped at second slip off Dane Paterson on three and recovered to score 68, his third half-century of the season.
Earlier, Middlesex failed to gather any batting bonus points earlier in the day, with Ryan Higgins top-scoring on 54 as they lost their last six wickets for 61 runs and were bowled out for 238.
Higgins soon advanced to his second successive half-century but, having stretched their overnight partnership to 81, Higgins and Ben Geddes departed within the space of three balls.
Joey Evison judged a catch in the deep perfectly to remove Geddes (29) before George Garrett (3-57) castled Higgins (54) with a beauty that hit the top of middle stump.
Kashif Ali (2-57) removed Zafar Gohar for one and Middlesex slipped from 177-4 to 178-7. It needed a robust stand of 42 between Jack Davies and Toby Roland-Jones to extend the hosts’ lead into three figures as Davies pulled Evison for the game’s first six and struck Matt Parkinson for successive boundaries.
However, the leg-spinner tempted Davies to drive again, pouching a return catch that sandwiched Evison’s (3-43) dismissals of Roland-Jones and Henry Brookes to wrap up Middlesex’s innings.
That left Kent to negotiate five overs before lunch – and Crawley was fortunate when a leading edge off his third delivery fell just short of point before Sam Robson spilled the chance to dismiss him in the next over.
Robson made amends by taking Ben Compton’s (8) edge at head height off Roland-Jones in the third over, but that was Middlesex’s sole success until mid-afternoon as the visitors capitalised on improved batting conditions.
Bell-Drummond gradually settled into the groove alongside Crawley, who adopted a merciless approach towards anything wide from the seamers.
The 27-year-old drove confidently on both sides of the wicket, dispatching a loose delivery from Higgins to the cover fence to reach his third half-century of the campaign from 62 balls as Kent wiped out their first-innings arrears.
Paterson finally achieved the breakthrough, bringing one back down the slope to pin Crawley on his back leg shortly before Bell-Drummond passed his half-century.
Tawanda Muyeye fell soon after tea, lbw prodding at Higgins for 13, and there was a scratchy start for Jack Leaning, caught on the shoulder by a ball from Roland-Jones that reared up just after his inside edge had narrowly over the stumps for four.
Leaning’s innings ended when he skied an attempted pull to mid-on for 16 before his successor as Kent captain chalked up a 19th first-class century from 168 balls.
Crawley said: “We’re really happy, it was fantastic to fight back. It’s never easy after a day like yesterday but the coach asked us to show a bit of character and we did that.
“At the start of today, I’d have bitten your hand off for the position we’re in at the moment.
“He’s got a lot of character, Daniel Bell-Drummond, he’s a fantastic player with a lot of talent and it was due. He always gets runs at important times.
“He’s one of those players who’s going to have low scores here and there but he always seems to chip in with a hundred when we need it most.
“There’s still some really good balls in there and on this particular pitch you want to put them out of sight really – it could get flat or it could just deteriorate, in which case we’re in a really strong position. If it deteriorates, then 200 could be a really hard chase.
“I’ve felt in decent touch all year, to be honest but just haven’t been able to get that (big) score yet. I got another decent ball, but I was pleased with how I played today so I’ll just try and take confidence from that and build on it.
“Every time you get picked for England is a massive honour, so that was fantastic news for me and I’m looking forward to that game against Zimbabwe. Hopefully I can build on the confidence I’ve got over the last couple of games.
“Every time I walk on the field I try and give my all – in training, for Kent and for England – and if I’ve done that I can go to bed and sleep well, that’s why I don’t get too down on myself.”
Report from ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
