County Championship: Kent face uphill battle to avoid defeat by Hampshire

Liam Dawson has mixed two half-centuries with four ducks this season

Kent were left battling for a draw after three days of their County Championship match with Hampshire at Canterbury.

The hosts closed on 66-0 in their second innings, trailing by 212, with Zak Crawley unbeaten on 35 and Ben Compton 30 not out.

Earlier Liam Dawson hit 84, Joe Weatherly 58 and James Fuller 51 as the visitors posted 373 in their first innings.

Kent had started well, with Wes Agar taking three early wickets to help reduce Hampshire to 159-5, but after riding out a torrid opening session the visitors kicked on after lunch and took a 278-run lead.

After day two had been reduced to just 6.1 overs, the weather finally improved on Saturday morning, with Hampshire resuming on 103-0.

Having been dismissed for just 95 in their first innings, Kent came roaring back into the contest, with Agar striking twice in the third over of the day.

Fletcha Middleton was first to go, edging behind for 48 and handing Jordan Cox his first red-ball dismissal as a wicketkeeper. Agar then produced a jaffa that sent Nick Gubbins' off-stump cartwheeling.

He then had Weatherley lbw, but was denied a fourth victim when Crawley dropped Ben Brown, although the batter failed to cash in, adding just a single before he was lbw to Grant Stewart for 10.

James Vince was given lbw to Michael Hogan for 24 and Hampshire endured a spell of 7.4 overs without scoring.

Ian Holland took 36 balls to get off the mark, although when he did it was a stylish cut off Joey Evison for four and he and Dawson survived to reach 189-5 at lunch.

A potentially crucial stand of 94 was ended in emphatic fashion when Evison splayed Holland's stumps for 41, but by then the momentum was entirely with Hampshire.

It was 308-6 at tea and Dawson continued to hit out until he holed out to Hamid Qadri and was caught at mid-wicket by Tawanda Muyeye.

Kyle Abbott was lbw to Evison for two before Fuller tried to sweep a full toss from Qadri and was caught on the boundary by Muyeye.

When Barker clubbed Evison to Muyeye for 25 it left Kent with a hazardous 26 overs to survive until stumps.

Dawson put down a tough chance to catch Compton off Mohammad Abbas, but the openers batted through until failing light forced Hampshire to bring on their spinners for the final five overs and neither Dawson nor Weatherley could break through.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.