Injury-hit Kent endured a tough day with bat and ball at Lord’s in their County Championship clash with Middlesex on Friday.
Bowled out for just 129, Kent will be keen to take early wickets on day two after their hosts closed the day 29 runs ahead with six first-innings wickets in hand.
Kent opted to bat first on a warm, sunny day at Lord’s but Zak Crawley wasn’t able to improve much on his low first-innings scores this summer.
Crawley’s made 1, 0, 1 so far and had reached just six this time when he was trapped in front by Dane Paterson.
It wasn’t how he wanted to celebrate being named in the England Test squad for the one-off match with Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge later this month.
Kent were quickly 19-2 as skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond followed, caught behind for five off Toby Roland-Jones – his fifth single-figure score in seven innings so far this summer.
Stubborn Ben Compton dropped anchor for more than an hour, reaching 14 off 56 balls before a misjudgement saw him leave one coming in from Ryan Higgins that clipped the top of his off stump.
Tawanda Muyeye and Jack Leaning looked much more assured but the miserly Roland-Jones had the former caught at gully by Higgins on the stroke of lunch for 29 to leave Kent 75-4.
The wickets continued to tumble with three more dismissals within 30 minutes when play resumed. Leaning (26) fell victim to a breathtaking one-handed grab by Higgins low to his left before Joey Evison (5) could count himself unfortunate to be given out leg before to a ball that seemed to be doing too much. Like many of his colleagues, Evison has also struggled for first-innings runs.
Debutant Jamal Richards, signed on a two-game loan from Essex, had no such hard-luck story, lasting just four balls before slapping Roland-Jones to cover without score.
Matt Parkinson, batting at nine, took advantage of being dropped at second slip to become the fourth Kent batter to reach double figures. But he lost Chris Benjamin, also on his Kent debut, for nine and then George Garrett for five.
Kashif Ali and Parkinson added 17 for the last wicket, the latter departing caught behind after an attempted pull for 17, to leave Kent 129 all out in 50.3 overs.
Roland-Jones finished with 5-33 from 14 excellent overs while Paterson took 2-29 and Henry Brooks 2-35.
Joe Denly and Matt Quinn were joined on the sidelines by Grant Stewart (abdomen) and Harry Finch (finger) following the draw with Gloucestershire last month. Jas Singh (ankle) and Nathan Gilchrist (concussion) were also ruled out along with Jaydn Denly through illness and Marcus O’Riordan (back).
With those injuries, Kent’s settled batting line-up seemed to be their strength so all eyes were on the bowlers in Middlesex’s reply.
Garrett, returning from injury himself, took nine balls to strike when he produced the perfect delivery to get through Stephen Eskinazi’s defences and hit off-stump, leaving the hosts 15-1.
Middlesex were 22-2 when Garrett had Sam Robson trapped in front to one that kept low for 10.
While Kashif Ali was unfortunate not to pick up a scalp, Evison was the pick of the Kent attack with 1-8 in his first six-over spell. He removed Max Holden for 16, well caught at slip by Leaning.
Paceman Richards endured a tough opening, given only a three-over spell that cost 21 runs and forcing Bell-Drummond to introduce Kashif Ali and Garrett back into the attack to wrestle some sort of control on the run-rate.
Ironically, given the day’s weather, the floodlights were turned on before 5.30pm as dark clouds gathered overhead.
The spin of Parkinson was not seen until the 28th over and he took just five balls to remove Luke Hollman for 42, caught behind by Benjamin, to leave Middlesex 96-4.
But Higgins (44 not out) and Ben Geddes (25 not out) put on an unbroken stand of 62 for the fifth wicket to see Middlesex through to stumps without further loss.
