Rehan Ahmed hit a brilliant 119 as Division Two leaders Leicestershire reached 386 for nine at stumps on day one of their Rothesay County Championship match against Kent at Canterbury.

Rishi Patel, dropped in the first over when he was on nought, made 85 in a stand of 164 for the second wicket with Rehan, who hit three sixes and 17 fours in a flamboyant innings that defied the gloomy conditions and a green wicket.

Matt Parkinson took seven for 104 and is on course for career best figures, if he can better the seven for 126 he took for Lancashire against Kent at this venue in 2021.

Tom Scriven and Josh Hull were not out on 39 and 12 respectively at the close.

Kent’s decision to bowl looked reasonable given the weather and the hue of the wicket, but less so when Leicestershire reached 120-1 for at lunch, by which time the hosts learned they’d been docked eight points for repeated infractions of the disciplinary code.

Given they were already 18 points adrift at the foot of the table, this did little to lighten the mood among the St. Lawrence ultras in a crowd of 1200 and the tone was set when Ben Compton dropped Rishi off the fifth ball of the morning, after he’d edged Agar.

The only wicket came in the 11th over, when Sol Budinger played on to Agar for 27 and Rishi got a second life when he was on 26 and cut Evison. The ball hit keeper Harry Finch on the glove before falling short of Tawanda Muyeye at first slip.

Both Rishi and Rehan reached their half-centuries with sixes, the former with a pull off Agar that flew over square-leg, the latter hooking the same bowler over backward square, but the afternoon session was more of a contest.

Parkinson broke the partnership when he duped Rishi into charging down the wicket and Finch stumped him and with his next delivery he had Lewis Hill brilliantly caught by a diving Tawanda Muyeye at slip.

Rehan reached his century when he nudged Parkinson for a single, but Joey Evison then had Peter Handscomb lbw for 18 and Parkinson got Rehan when Muyeye took an ankle-high catch.

By tea Kent were a bowler down, as stand-in skipper Grant Stewart had limped off with a hamstring injury, but Louis Kimber went for 17, caught by the sub Kashif Ali after he’d holed out to Parkinson and for the second time in the match the bowler found himself on a hat-trick when Ben Green went to the next ball, caught by debutant Ben Dawkins at silly point trying to sweep.

Logan van Beek survived it comfortably enough but had made just five when Parkinson had him caught by George Garrett at short third man. Ian Holland went in almost identical fashion for 49 before the players went off for bad light at 5.49pm.

Almost everyone in the ground had left when the umpires called the players back for a 6:25 restart and Leicestershire added 20 useful runs in the 5.5 overs that remained.

Leicestershire’s Rishi Patel said: “It was a bit of a weird day, wasn’t it? We got ourselves in and we kind of let it slip a little bit, but I think it’s a pretty good score, we’ve got a healthy run rate, so I think we’re in a decent position. Only time will tell, when we get to bowl on it and we see how they bat on it.

“I’ve struggled for a bit so it was nice to get a bit of luck (he was dropped in the first over) and just get back into it. I still felt quite ropey for the first 30 or 40 balls but I was trying to get through that and it got a lot easier as they day went on. It could have been a different story for me but it was just nice to score and contribute.

(On his dismissal) “I’m not going to try and change the way I play, I think I play spin pretty well in general and one of my options is going down the ground. It turned out of the rough and he (Parkinson) bowled well out of the rough.

“He found a lot of success doing that today so we’ll come back, look at the situation and probably play a little bit different. It looked like it turned which is a good sign for us, but that’s fine, that’s part of cricket. At the end of the day I’d have liked to have scored a hundred but I could have been out for zero, so swings and roundabouts.

“It felt more out of the rough than anything, I think he was aiming for that, he’s gone for it really early and it’s worked for him, so credit to him for thinking the way he did. We’ve got to find a way in the second innings to play that better.”

(On Rehan) “He’s a different player at the moment, he’s been unbelievable, he just oozes confidence and he’s a special, special cricketer. We’re very lucky to have him.”

Kent’s Matt Parkinson said: “It was decent I think, obviously the first session probably didn’t go the way we wanted it to but Smokes (Adam Hollioake) has just said that with the Kookaburra ball that can happen but yeah, to have them nine down is great.

“I didn’t think it would play like that, especially after the first tree overs but we quickly worked out that from over the wicket it was quite flat and there was no spin, so I thought we’d try going round and it worked.

“Finchy was skipper (when Grant Stewart went off and he did a great job but it’s obviously been tough to lose Daniel Bell-Drummond and now Grant as well, but yeah, it was fun with Finchy. It make me, Finchy and Grant feel a bit older when you have Ekansh and Dawks playing but it’s great, they’ve come through the pathway and so to have them and Jaydn this week is nice.”

(Any rivalry between leg spinners with Rehan) “I don’t think so. He’s a fine, fine young player ad he surprised me actually. I’ve not seen him bat in red ball cricket before and he was class to be fair, played some shots really and it was a good battle.

“What were they, 200 for one? So I think any time you have a team 200 for one and you and the day 390 for nine you end the day quite happy, but yeah, we’ll wait to see after we’ve batted.

“The last two weeks have been nice, I actually like the Kooka, again it doesn’t really spin too much here, which is probably why I came round the wicket, but hopefully it keeps spinning like that for the rest of the season.”