Kent’s Division One status was dangling by a thread after a dismal second day against Hampshire in the Vitality County Championship at Canterbury.

The hosts slumped to 64 for five for in reply to Hampshire’s first innings total 403, Kyle Abbot claiming three for 23.

What had looked like an even contest at the end of day one tilted drastically in Hampshire’s favour during the morning session. Tom Prest hit a majestic 102 and Brad Wheal chipped in with his highest first class score of 61 as Hampshire were finally dismissed for 403.

Kent could be relegated this week if they lose and results elsewhere go against them and they still trail by 339 at stumps.

The visitors began day two on 213 for seven and looked comfortable for the first hour until Joey Evison came on from the Nackington Road end and removed Abbott for 26, victim of a brilliant slip catch by Jack Leaning.

Prest, who only had 15 at the start of play, responded by dumping Matt Parkinson into the Old Dover Road hedges to bring up his fifty and he took 21 from the over.

He then reached his 100 from exactly 100 balls by dropping to one knee and smearing Charlie Stobo for six over deep midwicket before he finally fell to the same bowler after a juggling catch from Jas Singh on the deep midwicket boundary.

Even the last wicket pair put on 71. Wheal twisted the knife with an aggressive cameo that included a pulled six off Singh and it was 377 for nine when rain ushered in the lunch break.

Wheal was stuck on 49 for 15 balls before he nudged Parkinson for a single and he then clubbed Stobo for a six over square leg to take Hampshire past 400 before he was bowled playing on to Stobo.

Kent’s response was all too predictable. Muhammad Abbas, who also achieved a personal best of 13 not out, strangled Tawanda Muyeye, who was perhaps unfortunate to be given caught behind for five at the start of Kent’s sixth over.

Abbott then took three wickets in five balls. Daniel Bell-Drummond went first in the 11th over, caught for ten by Fletcha Middleton, a ball after he’d been dropped by Prest. Jack Leaning and Joe Denly then both went for a second-ball ducks, the former caught by Toby Albert, the latter lbw to a ball that hit him above the knee roll.

Joey Evison made 21 before Wheal had him caught behind but the hosts were spare further punishment when play was suspended at 4.34pm due to a combination of bad light and increasingly heavy rain, which persuaded the umpires there was no realistic chance of resuming.

Hampshire’s Brad Wheal said: “It was definitely a good day, we’re in a strong position in this game now, I think we’ve given ourselves a good opportunity to go ahead and hopefully bowl them out and get cracking in the second innings. We were 200-odd for seven last night so it was good to get some runs on the board and put them under pressure.

“We were really happy with the results we got (190 for the last three wickets). Presty batted brilliantly, he took the attack to them using the wind and the short boundary and really putting their bowlers under pressure, which I think was brilliant from him. I was just doing the best I could to stick with him and then I got a few away so I was pretty happy.

(On his maiden 50) “I was happy to get there, I’ve been close a few times but haven’t got over the line. That obviously wasn’t the worry as we were trying to get up to 400 and get those extra batting points but we managed to get there and in turn I managed to get my fifty so I’m pretty happy.

“It was nice hitting over to the short side. I was trying to put their bowlers under a bit of pressure, so the T20 batting practice worked.

“We know there’s still a lot to do and we don’t know what the weather’s going to do for the next couple of days so we’ve really got to be on it. Hopefully we can get those next five wickets and we can get cracking into the second innings but we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves.

“Abbo’s been bowling beautifully and it looked like he was going to get a wicket with almost every ball there. Him and Mo, their start was incredible. Hopefully Dawson can get settled in at one end and we’ll keep rotating the seamers from the other.”

Kent’s Joe Denly said: “It was pretty frustrating as a whole. We turned up this morning with real optimism, thinking we could get them out for 250 and that didn’t quite happen for us. We found ourselves with them getting to 400 and we weren’t able to cause them the trouble we would have liked. I think the pitch probably slowed up a bit for Park and look, take nothing away from Prest, he played a fantastic knock and he’s an impressive young player.

“Obviously we would have liked to have bowled them out a lot cheaper than that and with the bat we didn’t get off to the start we wanted. They took the momentum from their bowling into their batting and we know they’ve got a quality bowling attack. They really made the most of those new ball conditions. We’re well behind and in the next two days we got a lot of fighting to do. Hopefully we’ll scrap and get something out of the game.

“We’ve struggled to take 20 wickets in a game, that has been a pattern this year but I think it’s important not to dwell on that too much and always try to learn and get better. There’s a lot of frustration in the changing room, that’s for sure, there’s no hiding away from that, but like I say there’s still two days in the game and hopefully we can get something out of it.

“The attacks you come up against this year, regardless of whether it’s a Dukes ball or a Kookaburra ball, they’re always going to challenge your forward defence and if you’re not right on it they’re going to find ways of getting you out. Hopefully we’ll learn from today and come up with a better plan tomorrow as a batting unit.

(On coming back from his injury lay-off) “It’s been disappointing because I started this season pretty well and was feeling pretty good about my batting and my game in general, so to have that knee injury and then a little calf injury as well when I was just getting to where I wanted to be, just put me back a little bit more. To miss two and half months of the season has been really frustrating but certainly I’m feeling fresh and looking forward to these remaining games.

“I don’t like to make excuses but we have had a lot of injuries, that’s for sure. It’s been tough, a lot of our bowlers have gone down, a couple of batters here and there as well, Jack missed a large chunk of the season as well with a hand injury so it has been tricky and with the schedule as well it’s hard to compete with some of the quads we come up against but the 11 players ou there are more than capable, so we’re always looking for positives.”