Kent almost wiped out a first-innings deficit before bad light ended play four overs early at Lord’s on day two.

The visitors reached 40-2, a deficit of just three, having bowled out Middlesex for 229 in their LV= County Championship Division 1 clash. Kent were bowled out before lunch for 186.

Resuming on 113-6, Ben 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 half-century from 165 balls and shortly afterwards four leg byes raised a precious 50 stand for the seventh wicket. However, Compton (52) 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 – Matt Quinn made 11 and Wes Agar seven - Stewart went into all-out attack mode. The Kent man has history of such heroics against Middlesex, his blistering career-best of 103 having come in Kent’s 342-run pink ball thrashing at Canterbury five years ago.

Stewart wouldn’t reach those heights, but he lofted one offering from Ethan Bamber (4-42) 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 for a 50-ball 44, Tom Helm somehow clinging on one-handed to a steepling, swirling top edge which found its way to fine third man.

Middlesex;s reply 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 Michael Hogan through cover and mid-off.

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

Pieter Malan survived 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 to a mixture of good balls and injudicious shot making, stand-in skipper Stephen Eskinazi and John Simpson in the former category, while Robson was very much in the latter camp.

At 90-6 the hosts were up against it, but Ryan Higgins stood firm, driving the ball confidently and playing with a security which had eluded his team-mates 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 Quinn (2-39) for 32, 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 (4-60). He perished attempting to repeat the feat, but Middlesex’s 43-run advantage looked useful.

Tim Murtagh dismissed England opener Zak Crawley for a golden duck, causing him to fend a shortish ball into the hands of 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 Compton nursed the visitors to 40-2.

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.

“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.”