Kent’s bowlers enjoyed the best of a second dreary day as visitors Middlesex stumbled to reach 123 for six after 61.5 overs of the first innings and at the mid-point of this rain-ruined Bob Willis Trophy clash in Canterbury.

Having lost 80.3 overs to bad light and showers on Saturday, the two south group sides sparred for runs and wickets throughout an overcast morning session before rain returned three overs after lunch to wash out another 46 overs from the match.

Resuming on their overnight score of 22 for one at 11am, Middlesex’s second-wicket partners Sam Robson and Stevie Eskinazi found runs hard to come by against the frugal new-ball attack of Matt Milnes and Darren Stevens.

The visitors garnered only 10 runs in the opening half-hour before visiting captain Eskinazi, on nine, groped for a Stevens away-swinger and edged low to keeper Oli Robinson, who took the catch in one glove diving away to his right.

A double bowling change led to the introduction of Grant Stewart and Fred Klassen, but Kent’s tactic to restrict the flow of boundaries continued to reap rewards.

In a tidy, seven-over stint down the Nackington Road slope Klassen, a 27-year-old left-armer making only his third first-class appearance, helped maintain the stranglehold on the run-rate as Middlesex mustered only three boundaries in the opening hour, one of which came via a thick outside edge to third man.

Having faced 86 balls for his 36 runs, Robson chipped a Klassen in-ducker to Daniel Bell-Drummond at short mid-wicket then, seven overs later, Martin Andersson mistimed an attempted on-drive to another Klassen in-swinger and clipped a firm return catch to the Netherlands’ bowler.

The clouds returned three overs into the mid-session and shortly after 2pm with the rain strengthening in intensity throughout the afternoon. But the torrent abated by 4pm and, after two inspections and tireless work by the groundstaff, umpires Nigel Llong and Neil Bainton decided play could re-start at 5.30pm with 16 overs remaining in the day.

The joust between bat and ball continued under blue skies and in bright sunshine after the resumption, yet Middlesex needed 8.3 overs to record their first boundary of the evening session with four leg byes to fine leg.

Nevertheless, fifth-wicket partners Jack Davies and Robbie White dug in to take their partnership to 40 before Davies (13), off-balance and working to leg across an in-swinger, went lbw to Stevens.    

With the penultimate ball of the day Klassen ran one across left-hander John Simpson (10) and found the outside edge for another spectacular tumbling catch by Robinson.

Klassen improved his career-best first-class figures to finish the day with three for 19 while Stevens closed with two for 32.