Quick wickets frustrate Kent on day one
Sean Dickson and Wayne Parnell each scored 41 as Kent reached 238-8 on day one of the Specsavers County Championship match at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence.
After sharing a 83-run stand with Daniel Bell-Drummond, Dickson was the first to fall as Will Davis took three quick wickets and Luis Reece took another three either side of lunch.
Dickson nicked 21-year-old Davis to gloveman Gary Wilson after a fluent 68-ball innings before Joe Denly was trapped LBW with the next ball.
Left-arm seamer Reece, a winter signing from Lancashire, tempted Bell-Drummond to edge to an athletic catch at slip by Daryn Smit before Will Gidman was adjudged LBW to Davis in the following over.
In-form Darren Stevens was caught-and-bowled by Tom Milnes off a leading edge before Kent captain Sam Northeast was caught behind by Wilson, the Irishman who moved from Surrey in the winter.
Fresh from an unbeaten half-century at Hove in his only previous innings of the season, Wayne Parnell contributed a useful 41 before he fell to Reece. Prodding down and squared up by late away swing, the left-hander edged to third slip to make it 193 for seven.
James Tredwell and Adam Rouse saw Kent through to 200 for their first batting bonus point but, with his score in seven Tredwell perished to the fifth ball of the day from leg-spinner Jeevan Mendis. Working across the line to one that dipped late, Tredwell went lbw to one that hit him flush on the right boot.
The floodlights came on for the final session of the day when, after an initial ten-minute stoppage for bad light, the day’s events finished early at 5.51pm with Rouse, who played the longest innings of the day, and James Harris, still unbeaten with their side still 12 shy of a second batting bonus point.
After spending the last two hours of the day at the crease, Rouse argued that Kent already have a decent score on the board. He said: “We felt Derbyshire got their lengths slightly wrong at the start there before they really started to hit their straps and make it tougher for us.
“By the time I got in it was a case of digging to get us through a tricky period and I’d like to think that partnership at the end can give us a bit of momentum going into tomorrow. We’ll push for a second bonus point, but the first hour will be crucial.”
The hosts made one change to the side that comfortably defeated Sussex last week. Harris, the Middlesex loanee seamer, getting the nod at the expense of the unfortunate Mitch Claydon, who had taken five wickets in the win at Hove.