Following the ups and downs of day one of the Rothesay County Championship Division match at Merchant Taylors’ School in Hertfordshire, it was difficult to know whether Middlesex or Kent were in the stronger position.

Day 2 continued to ebb and flow, but Middlesex appeared to be behind for the majority of the day and when bad light curtailed play early, the visitors were still in a position of strength despite a disappointing final session.

Resuming on 299 for 6, and with the new ball due in five overs, Kent would have wanted the fledgling partnership between Ekansh Singh and Keith Dudgeon to be fruitful. Unfortunately, the latter suffered an unlucky thirteen as that was his score overnight and he didn’t add to it. Singh was joined by Matt Milnes and they took the score to 337 before the young all rounder was trapped LBW by Ryan Higgins.

Matt Parkinson failed to trouble the scorers when caught behind and become Toby Roland-Jones’ fifth victim, however, Milnes took the score to 350, and a third batting bonus point, before being last out for 32. Matt Quinn, the third Matt in the final three, ended nought not out. Roland-Jones could have had more than his 5 for 71, Higgins returned 3 for 86, and Tom Helm 2 for 72.

When Middlesex started their reply, Sam Robson was caught by a sensational catch by Tawanda Muyeye off Milnes. Luke Hollman and Max Holden then stood firm and they went into lunch at 47 for 1.

After lunch, Milnes and Quinn went to work and four wickets fell for just fifteen runs. One of those, Ben Geddes, was a little unlucky as he appeared to have been given out caught behind off his helmet, but both teams had decisions go against them and as much as he looked to the sky, he had to troop back.

Higgins (33) and wicketkeeper Joe Cracknell (38) held Kent up but were both removed by Kent’s opening bowlers. Eathan Bosch then came in and took a painful blow on the elbow from a Quinn lifter just before tea. Middlesex scored exactly one hundred between the two breaks but losing seven wickets meant that it was definitely Kent’s session.

Having seemingly recovered from his blow, Bosch was joined by Roland-Jones and the latter went on the offensive. He struck 36 off 26 balls, including four fours and two sixes, before being caught by Muyeye off Ekansh Singh for 36. Tom Helm came in at eleven and hit 26 at greater than a run a ball before he was out when Singh came in off the boundary to take a good catch off the bowling of Quinn. The last two wickets put on 102 runs but fell one run short of a batting point on 249 all out. Milnes ended with 5 for 53, Quinn 5 for 52, and Singh 1 for 28

Although, Bosch finished unbeaten on 43, Middlesex were given permission to replace him with injury substitute left arm bowler Noah Cornwell. That surprised Kent as he does not fit the ‘like for like’ requirement.

Looking to build on their first innings lead of 101, Kent lost their two players who scored eighty plus in the first innings with just five runs on the board. Zak Crawley edged a Roland-Jones Jaffa for a second ball duck then Sam Northeast was caught at slip off Higgins for five off a ball that climbed on him. Muyeye joined Ben Compton and survived a chance when offering a straight-forward catch to slip which Higgins spilled off Roland-Jones.

At 18:52, the umpires decided that it was too dark to continue. Kent were 38 for 2 with Muyeye 23 not out and Compton unbeaten on 10, with an intriguing game’s cricket ahead.