Joey Evison (50 not out) scores half-century as he puts on 69 runs with fellow all-rounder Grant Stewart in Kent’s 203-7 on day one of County Championship match with Lancashire

All-rounder Joey Evison made his third half-century this season as Kent battled back against Lancashire on the opening day of their Vitality County Championship Division 1 match at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday.

Evison was helped by Grant Stewart, with whom he put on 69 for the seventh wicket, a stand in which both batsmen took the attack to Lancashire’s Test spinners - Nathan Lyon (2-42) and Tom Hartley (0-24) - on a gloomy afternoon in Manchester.

The duo came together with their side 129-6 after George Balderson (3-62) had taken three prime wickets in 28 balls but their calculated aggression had enabled the visitors to reach 203-7, with Evison unbeaten on 50, when rain arrived five overs into the evening session and prevented any chance of a resumption.

Italian international all-rounder Stewart, 30, said: “In the first hour of play, it looked like there wasn’t a helluva lot going on but then there was a period there when it looked as though everything was going on!

“But Joey steadied the ship there and then Joe Denly faced a lot of balls and consolidated the innings.

“We’re probably a few short of where we want to be but we’ll fight again tomorrow and, hopefully, get a few more.

“It’s good to be back and Joey’s been one of our form batters, so it was nice to be out there with him and to try and feed him some of the strike.”

Evison and Stewart’s aggression was in sharp contrast to the watchful opening 75 minutes of the day, in which 45 runs were scored in 17 overs.

Kent then lost three wickets in four overs. Ben Compton was the first to go when he pushed forward to a delivery from Balderson and was caught by wicketkeeper Matty Hurst for 13.

Zak Crawley stroked a trio of fine fours off successive balls from Balderson