West Indies paceman Miguel Cummins bagged three wickets as Kent were made to work hard for their first innings runs on day three of their Bob Willis Trophy clash with Middlesex in Canterbury.
Joe Denly top-scored for the hosts with an excellent unbeaten 70 as he and night watchman Matt Milnes (4*) made it through to stumps on 146 for five to trail the visitors by 123 runs going into the fourth and final day.
Kent lost makeshift opener Marcus O’Riordan and his partner Daniel Bell-Drummond within 13 overs as they started their response to Middlesex’s workmanlike total of 269 all out.
Bell-Drummond (14) fended at a lifter from former West Indies Test paceman Cummins to glove a catch through to the keeper, then, steaming down the Nackington Road slope, Cummins drew O’Riordan (11) outside off, fencing away from his body at another short one to be caught at fourth slip.
Soon after tea, and with the score on 57, last week’s double-century maker Jack Leaning (4) blotted his copybook by reaching on the drive at a wide one from Ethan Bamber to be caught at point.
Joe Denly, back in the Kent side after his exclusion from England’s Test squad, teamed up with Sam Billings to cash in on several loose deliveries from James Harris and Bamber in an attractive fourth-wicket stand worth 39.
Billings added 20 to the partnership before his loose back-foot waft against the extra pace of Cummins – one of the few overseas players on show this season – flew to the keeper to make it 96 for four.
Denly maintained a cool head down the other end to reach an attractive maiden Trophy 50 in two hours with a clipped four through mid-wicket against dangerman Cummins. The right-hander faced 83 balls and hit nine fours.
Denly combined with Oli Robinson to help see off Cummins after the Bajan claimed three for 41 from his three excellent spells but his replacement, Martin Andersson moved one late off the seam to have Robinson (17) held at slip by Stevie Eskinazi at the second attempt.
At the day’s start, reduced cloud cover and the softer, older ball, ensured seventh-wicket partners Robbie White and Harris found batting conditions far more favourable than their counterparts had during the opening two days.
The pair frustrated Kent for much of the opening session adding 93 useful runs as White posted a 151-ball 50 with eight fours scored in a shade over three hours and soon moved past his first-class career-best of 69 scored for Loughborough MCCU against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road in 2017.
His near five-hour vigil spread over 220 balls was ended by the 11th delivery with the second new ball and an agonising juggled catch in the cordon. Prodding half-forward to a Darren Stevens away-swinger, White turned to watch as the outside edge flew to second slip where Leaming clung on to the chance at the third attempt.
Harris, the former Kent loanee, had reached a patient 41 from 128 balls when he too was out-foxed by Stevens. Prodding forward to a leg-cutter, Harris pushed inside the line to have his off stump plucked out.
Klassen came up with a near identical delivery to clip off stump and account for left-handed Cummins and give Kent their third bowling bonus point.
Stevens duly wrapped up his 28th five-wicket first-class haul by trapping last man Thilan Walallawita lbw low on the front pad with an in-swinger to end the innings after 108 overs. Klassen, with four for 44, recorded career-best first-class figures.
Kent’s top-scorer Joe Denly said: “It’s great to be back here because it feels like a really long time since I played at Canterbury. I’m enjoying and hopefully we can keep going tomorrow and put some more runs on the board.
“We can build again in the morning, potentially get a decent lead, take it session by session and see where we get to. We bat a long way down, so we’ll try and get more overs under their bowlers’ belts and try and put some pressure on their batsmen later in the day.
“Cummins generated quite a bit of bounce, which is unusual here. It was really challenging, certainly in the channel and you saw that with a couple of the early dismissals. DBD certainly got a nasty one and they bowled well generally with the new ball. There were scoring opportunities in between though and we tried to capitalise on that.
“It’ll be tricky tomorrow because there are some good balls waiting for you in that surface, but we must try not to follow the ball and wait for the scoring opportunities. We must keep them out there, build partnerships and keep their bowlers out there for three or four spells. If we can do that, then later in the day we might be in a position to push for a mad hour or two.”
Miguel Cummins said: “It’s a nice pitch. I was watching their tall-left armed guy Klassen yesterday, he’s also tall and seemed to be getting a lot of extra bounce. I said to my guys that with me being tall as well I thought I could put in a bit extra and get a bit more out of the pitch and that’s how it worked out today.
“I was trying to get the ball that got Bell-Drummond a lot fuller than I did, but it worked out fine and worked for the team. It was normal seam-up, but there was a little extra something in that one. If you put it in here you get your rewards.
“Our bowling plan was to just stick to one side of the wicket and bowl as a group and in partnerships. That worked because this is a fast-scoring ground so anything with width or anything loose, you’ll pay for it. We were disciplined and stuck to our plans no matter what.
“If we come tomorrow and get their last five wickets quickly then maybe we can get something out of this match in terms of points but we’ll have to see how it goes.”