Kent made a promising start with the bat as they replied to Essex's huge first innings total on day two in Chelmsford on Friday.

Essex resumed the LV= County Championship Division 1 clash at 272-4 and were bowled out for 514 on the stroke of tea before Kent reached 122-1 at the close.

Debutant Ben Compton led the Kent response with an assured 47 not out but he lost fellow opener Bell-Drummond lbw to Sam Cook in the eighth over for 11.

However, Tawanda Muyeye proved a willing partner in the final two hours of play and the 21-year-old finished 43 not out.

The pair were relatively untroubled until the final few overs of the day when Essex's short-pitched approach seemed to unsettle the duo.

Kent are also waiting on news of Joe Denly, who came off the field with a hamstring injury during the Essex innings.

Earlier in the day, Matt Critchley marked his Essex debut with a century. The close-season signing from Derbyshire was finally last man out for 132.

Critchley was finally beaten by an off-break from Muyeye after an innings of sublime timing. In the process he shared stands of 94 with Adam Wheater and 65 with another debutant Adam Rossington.

Conditions were in marked contrast to day one. Gone was the strong wind to be replaced with comparative gentleness. Kent also found some spite and zip in the wicket through Jackson Bird and Matt Milnes.

Tom Westley discovered the veracity of that when he attempted to fend off one from Bird that rose from a length but ended up in the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

Critchley and Rossington grabbed the opportunity to ease themselves in to life at their new home during an eye-catching sixth-wicket partnership. Rossington, who only signed on loan from Northants at the start of the week, married aggression with some majestic strokes as the wicket calmed down again.

A lovely cover drive for four off Matt Quinn was followed by effortless straight drives to the boundary from successive deliveries.

Having reached 41 off 52 balls, however, Rossington fell to Darren Stevens, who sent down a delivery that jagged past the outside edge and hit the off-stump to open his wicket account for the summer.

Critchley had played the anchor role but was no less flamboyant than Rossington when the chance arose. There was an elegant a back-foot four off Nathan Gilchrist and a well-executed pull to the boundary that took him to fifty.

Critchley accelerated after lunch and reached the fifth century of his career with a straight-driven four off Quinn. Once three-figures had been reached, Critchley celebrated with maximums over Muyeye’s head and a pull over square leg off Gilchrist before becoming the maiden first-class wicket for Muyeye on the stroke of tea.

Wheater bludgeoned the ball to various corners of the ground before chopping on to Quinn.

Bird (3-85), who claimed the three wickets at the top of the Essex order, was the pick of the Kent attack, while Gilchrist (3-98) picked up three less auspicious scalps, adding Shane Snater and Mark Steketee towards the end of the innings.

Kent bowler Bird said: “It was nice to get a couple of wickets yesterday - it would have been better if they’d been earlier in the day than the 86th over!

"The wind took the life out of the wicket a little bit, there wasn’t much swing because of how windy it was. So it was a bit of a grind bowling from that bottom end. I guess once the wind settled down in that last session it started to do a little bit more. But the conditions yesterday were probably the worst of my career.

“This morning once the new-ball wore down a bit it lost its bounce and zip off the wicket pretty quickly. The new-ball has probably got 20 overs in it before it goes soft, so that was the case this morning - the first couple of overs had a bit of zip and then it flattened out.

“Tomorrow is a big day for us. The first hour is going to be very important to get through that unscathed. Hopefully we can build on the good start we had . That’s pretty much all we’re looking at at the moment, obviously score when we can and not lose too many wickets.”