Tim Murtagh dismissed England opener Zak Crawley for a golden duck and was on a hat-trick on a day of clattering wickets between Middlesex and Kent at Lord’s.

Murtagh, who turns 42 in August, making him the third oldest seamer in county cricket behind Gareth Berg and Michael Hogan, denied Crawley valuable batting time ahead of the first Ashes Test, causing him to fend a shortish ball into the hands of Stephen Eskinazi at slip.

The former Ireland international then pinned Daniel Bell-Drummond with the very next ball, forcing Jack Leaning to come out and defend the hat-trick ball.

Murtagh’s spell ended at 2-9, before Leaning and Ben Compton nursed the visitors to 40-2, a deficit of just three when bad light ended play four overs early.

Earlier, combative all-rounder Ryan Higgins’ fourth half century of the season rescued Middlesex following another top-order collapse, his 71 out of a total of 229 granting the Seaxes a first-innings lead of 43 despite 4-60 from Wes Agar.

All this drama came after Kent were dismissed for 186 in the morning session, Compton top-scoring with 52 while Murtagh and Ethan Bamber claimed four wickets apiece.

Resuming on 113-6 not out batters Compton and Grant Stewart initially prospered against bowling which lacked the miserly quality of 24 hours previously.

Compton nicked one between slip and gully to reach an obdurate 50 from 165 balls and shortly afterwards four leg byes raised a precious 50 stand for the seventh wicket. However, Compton departed to the very next ball, an attempted pull shot out of keeping with the rest of his watchful vigil ending up in the gloves of wicketkeeper John Simpson.

While wickets fell at the other end Stewart went into all-out attack mode. The Kent man has history of such heroics against the Seaxes, his blistering career-best of 103 having come in Kent’s 342-run pink ball game thrashing of the men of Lord’s five years ago.

Stewart wouldn’t reach those heights, but he lofted one offering from Bamber into the Tavern Stand before smiting another blow over the short boundary on the leg side.

It took a catch in a million to see the back of him, Tom Helm somehow clinging on one-handed to a steepling, swirling top edge which found its way to fine third man.

Middlesex, perhaps buoyed by their successful final innings run chase against Nottinghamshire on Sunday, began with a flurry of boundaries, Mark Stoneman square driving and then cutting wide balls from Agar to the point fence in the first over. Sam Robson caught the mood, driving a trio of balls from Hogan through cover and mid-off.

It would though prove a false dawn as Stoneman fell to the first ball of Agar’s second over, cutting at one far to close to him for the shot.

Pieter Malan failed to build on his 61 in the Notts run chase, surviving two big lbw shouts before perishing to a leg-side strangle almost immediately after lunch.

It sparked the all-too familiar procession of Middlesex’s top order too and from the pavilion to a mixture of good balls and injudicious shot making, stand-in skipper Eskinazi and John Simpson in the former category, while Sam Robson was very much in the latter camp.

At 90-6 the hosts were up against it, but Higgins stood firm, driving the ball confidently and playing with a security which had eluded his teammates higher up the order. Again, not for the first time this season he found an ally in Luke Hollman, the leg-spinning all-rounder hitting cleanly in a stand of 75.

Once Hollman was bowled by Matthew Quinn, Higgins, who reached 50 in 93 balls with seven fours, began swinging for the hills, bludgeoning a six high into the Mound Stand and just clearing the rope with another blow off Agar. He perished attempting to repeat the feat, but Middlesex’s advantage looked useful.

Kent coach Simon Cook said: “The game has moved on apace. When we got here and had a look at the wicket it looked as if it was going to be a fast moving game. The overhead conditions here when it is cloudy and the lights are on as they have been for most of the match, means it assists the bowlers quite a lot. 

“So, it’s a low scoring game and they tend to be nervy. Where we are now with essentially all scores level, if we can get a couple of hundred run lead or 220 lead, it could be a challenging chase. 

“I don’t think it is flattening out as such. The spell just now with the new ball with Ethan Bamber and Murtagh in particular posed some challenging questions to Compo (Ben Compton) and Jack (Leaning) and they batted fantastically well to get through and navigate through that period.

“Hopefully if the sun is out tomorrow we may well get a bit of a respite. Most of their bowlers have had nearly 20 overs in their legs today, so the longer we can keep them out there tomorrow, the easier potentially it will become. And if we get that 200 run lead with a day of rest in our bowlers’ legs we should be in a better position to push home the advantage on day four.

“There’s two ways of going about batting on a wicket like this. You can either go as Compo does where he backs his defence in order to occupy the crease and wear down the bowlers, while Grant (Stewart) goes the other way, trying to put the pressure on their bowlers by taking the fight to them.

“The combination of both worked really well, Compo forcing them to have more overs in their legs, while Grant threw them off a bit with his cameo towards the end there. The Middlesex innings followed a similar pattern with Higgins playing a similar role to Grant so the game is in an interesting position. 

Middlesex all-rounder Ryan Higgins said: “The day had its ups and downs but overall it was a good one. The momentum swung in our favour at certain points, but Kent did well to see it through to the end of the day.

“Murts was incredible with the ball. He literally changed the gear of the game by getting two massive players out, Zak (Crawley) and England player while Daniel Bell-Drummond is one of the best in county cricket. Every year he keeps coming back and doing what he’s done in county cricket for 20-odd years now.

“We’re seeing the beauty of having a lot of seamers in good nick and people ready to put their hand up. I feel the squad has even more depth below that, which is a great place for Middlesex cricket and for us going forward in the championship.”

On his own batting form he said: “At times you get a bit lucky, but not all of it is down to that. It’s about hard work and trying to see through tough situations. First class cricket doesn’t always go your way, so when it does it’s nice, but you’ve got to keep putting in the hours, working out how to play on different wickets which hopefully stands me in good stead. 

“Those runs we made at the end will help in this game. The wicket is doing a bit but it’s important not to make that the be all and end all of your game plan, respecting the good ball and then putting pressure back on the bowlers any way you can.”