Matt Parkinson impressed as Kent fought back on day one of their County Championship Division 2 match against Leicestershire in Canterbury on Tuesday.
It had looked like another tough day was on the cards for the basement boys against the league leaders, who had progressed to 200-1 and saw stand-in Kent skipper Grant Stewart hobble off the pitch in the afternoon session.
But England international leg-spinner Parkinson had figures of 7-104 from 27 overs to leave Leicestershire 386-9 at the close of play on day one.
He said: “That was decent, I think.
“Obviously, the first session didn’t go the way we wanted it to. Smokes (head coach Adam Hollioake) has just said that can happen with a Kookaburra ball.
“To have them nine down, that was great.”
Stewart won his first toss as captain and elected to field first, with wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Dawkins making his first-class Kent debut. He joined fellow teenagers Jaydn Denly (0-35) and Ekansh Singh (0-17) in an already sorely-depleted team.
With Stewart (0-43) opening the bowling alongside Australian overseas player Wes Agar (1-81), the latter made the breakthrough. He cleaned up Sol Budinger for 27 in the 11th over.
But it proved a largely fruitless morning session for the hosts, who confirmed they have received an eight-point Division 2 penalty after passing the threshold of four fixed penalties in one season, in Kent’s latest blow in a forgettable red-ball summer.
Leicestershire opener Rishi Patel – dropped in the slips in the first over – moved to his half-century with a leg-side maximum from Agar to leave them 120-1 at lunch.
Inside 15 minutes of the afternoon session, Rehan Ahmed went through to his 50 that also came off Agar.
Stewart came close to a sensational grab at long-off from Parkinson’s spin, heading backwards at the end of the 40th over. But the ball trickled over his head and away for four runs.
Leicestershire had eased to 201-2 by the time Patel was stumped by Harry Finch off Parkinson’s bowling for 85 at the start of a spirited home comeback and a marathon spell for 28-year-old Parkinson.
From the following ball in the 44th over, fit-again Tawanda Muyeye took a superb catch at slip to dismiss Lewis Hill for a golden duck.
But Kent’s injury crisis looked to have deepened further just after 3pm when Dan George, the club’s head of science & medicine, came onto the field before he came straight back off alongside a hobbling Stewart.
The Italian international could now potentially join captain Daniel Bell-Drummond (knee), Joe Denly (calf), Chris Benjamin (calf) and Jas Singh (ankle) on the sidelines.
Ahmed then moved to his second red-ball ton in as many games from 127 balls from Parkinson to leave Leicestershire 237-3.
Kent continued to respond well, however, and Muyeye again combined with Parkinson to dismiss Patel for 119 after Joey Evison (1-43) had trapped captain Peter Handscomb in front.
The visitors were 275-5 at tea.
Incredibly, Parkinson struck twice in two balls for the second time in the day as he made the most of the rough, coming around the wicket.
He had Louis Kimber caught for 17 by Pakistan substitute fielder Kashif Ali and 19-year-old Dawkins took a sharp catch at silly point off the very next ball of the 68th over to complete his ninth first-class five-wicket haul.
By now, Parkinson was virtually single-handedly working his way through Leicestershire’s line-up and had Logan van Beek caught for five by George Garrett (0-62) to leave them 321-8.
Parkinson – whose best first-class figures stand at 7-126, ironically coming against Kent when he was playing for Lancashire in 2021 – was having such success that Kent initially opted against the second new ball.
He took his seventh scalp as Ian Holland was caught by Garrett for 49 after a 42-run partnership alongside No.10 Tom Scriven.
Asked if Parkinson had expected his day to play out like that, he replied: “No, I didn’t, especially after the first three overs.
“We quickly worked out, from over the wicket, it was quite flat.
“There was no spin from over so I guess coming around worked.”
He had pulled Agar to the boundary when bad light stopped play shortly before 6pm, with Scriven 31 not out. Josh Hull was still yet to get off the mark after seeing off 12 deliveries.
Many had assumed proceedings had ended for the day after a delay of more than 30 minutes – they had not!
The umpires took the players back out at 6.25pm to a now virtually empty ground.
That allowed Hull to get off the mark, finishing the day 12 not out, and Scriven unbeaten with 39.
