Kent (207 all out & 4-1) trail Essex (458-8 dec) by 247 runs in County Championship Division 1 at Chelmsford

Kent were made to toil in the field and trail Essex by 247 runs with nine wickets left after day two of the sides’ County Championship Division 1 clash at Chelmsford.

Declaring on 458-8 after ending day one 106 without loss, the hosts had the added bonus of a Kent wicket with the last ball of the evening, Tawanda Muyeye lbw to Sam Cook for a duck.

Matt Critchley’s second century of the season had put Essex in the driving seat on a strange day of substitutes and concussion repercussions.

The 26-year-old faced just 168 balls in rattling up 117 runs as Essex put Kent to the sword while building a first-innings lead of 251. Critchley entered at 158-3 and departed 64 overs later on 408-7 when he picked out long-leg to give part-time spinner Jack Leaning a rare wicket.

In between he shared a century stand with Simon Harmer - who hit a swashbuckling season’s-best 83 not out from 92 balls - and other partnerships worth 71 and 49 with Paul Walter and Adam Rossington respectively. In the process the former Derbyshire all-rounder took his season’s tally in the Championship past 700 runs.

“It’s probably not been our best day when you look at the scoreboard,” said Kent bowling coach Simon Cook, “but having said that the first two sessions we held them really, really well.

“We had plenty of opportunities, we had three or four clear chances which unfortunately we couldn’t take. We actually bowled two really good sessions up to tea.

“We knew they were going to start to come hard and unfortunately we couldn't really hold on to those chances and they came to bite us in that last session when they put us under a bit of pressure. As a result we end up batting this evening rather than batting an hour into tomorrow.

“It’s one of those pitches