A stellar century by Jordan Cox rescued Kent on day one of their LV= Insurance County Championship match with Surrey at Canterbury.
The hosts recovered from 41-5 to 301 all out, after losing five top order wickets for seven runs in the space of 31 balls.
Cox led the fight back with 133, exactly 100 of which came after he was dropped by Ben Foakes. He was also part of two crucial partnerships, putting on 121 for the sixth wicket with Joey Evison, who made 58, then exactly 100 for the ninth with Wes Agar, who made 51.
Surrey’s Sean Abbott took four for 52, but the visitors were 18 for two at stumps, trailing by 283 after Wes Agar claimed two late wickets.
The big news before the start of play was Kent’s decision to omit Sam Billings after what was described as “mutual discussions around form.” The captain had averaged 9.19 so far this season so this wasn’t a bombshell, but even this ritual sacrifice did little to improve the mood of a festival crowd during a torrid morning session.
Kent won the toss, chose to bat in front of a festival week crowd and eased through 11 overs, only to lose four wickets for a single run in 13 balls.
Both openers fell to slip catches off Abbott in the 12th, Ben Compton for nine, edging the first delivery to Will Jacks at third and Tawanda Muyeye for 21, nudging the final ball to Dom Sibley at first.
The next three batters made ducks. Daniel Bell-Drummond was lbw to Jordan Clark and at the start of the 14th Abbott bowled Joe Denly with a ball that nipped back.
Cox survived the hat-trick ball but when Clark had stand-in skipper Jack Leaning caught behind soon afterwards the natives were getting restless.
On the boundary a member greeted another with the polite enquiry: “Good morning, all right?”
The reply was blunt: “Yes. Only I’m not all right, and it’s not a good morning.”
Evision’s arrival prompted a more defiant yell of: “Come on Joey, they don’t like it up ‘em,” and he at least prevented further damage before lunch, at which point Kent were 80 for five.
It nearly got worse for Kent when Cox edged Abbott, but Foakes dropped a simple chance.
Evison completed his half-century by hooking the same bowler to the boundary and looked well set until he edged Dan Moriarty to Foakes.
Foakes then took a smart catch off Gus Atkinson to get rid of Hamid Qadri for five, flinging himself to the leg side, before Atkinson sent Quinn’s leg stump flying for 10, but Kent were on 211 for eight at tea, with Agar showing signs he could have been higher up the order.
The runs started to flow in the evening session. Cox reached three figures with an elegant reverse-swept four off Moriarty and although Will Jacks nearly had him caught on the boundary when he was on 123, Sibley had to step over the rope before completing the catch.
The new ball eventually did for Cox, who hit Abbott to Clark at mid on but the bowler was denied a five-wicket haul when Arshdeep Singh skyed the next ball and Burns couldn’t cling on.
That drop was less costly as Worrall had Agar caught by Sibley at first slip in the next over, but it left Surrey with 11 overs to navigate before stumps.
Singh’s first three overs in county cricket were all maidens but it was Agar who made the breakthrough, drawing Burns into a hook that was caught by Quinn at short fine leg for 15. Nightwatcher Atkinson then fell in almost identical fashion to the final ball of the day, leaving even Kent’s most pessimistic fans beaming.
Kent’s Jordan Cox said: “We were forty for four which was not really ideal, so to get a fight back with myself and Joey Evison and then Wes showed real fight from the boys and to get them two down means we’re ahead of the game.
“I was actually about to walk. I think everyone knows Foakesie’s the best keeper in the world and he summed that up today when he dropped one and then took two unbelievable catches down the leg side to dismiss two of our batters.
“It was a real faint nick and when I looked around it was wobbling and it flew through. Sibley was running to celebrate because obviously everyone thought Foakes is under it, it’s out. It hit his hand quite hard it went to pretty much where Sibley was.
“I think I got away with one there. I’ve been dropped a few times this year, more in the white ball side of it, but luck goes your way and I can assure you, if I nick it again, I’m sure he’ll catch it
“I think most of the boys knew. Most of us have been struggling for runs, I’m not going to lie, even myself. It’s all about scoring runs and for the best interests of the team, he was like: ‘I’m going to step down for this game. This is what I want to do and this is what I need to do.’
“And that’s proper from a captain. A lot of captains would just go no, I’m captain of the team, I need to play but actually he was like: ‘I want this for the team, I know I’m captain but I can still get dropped. It shows the boys anyone can get dropped.”
On Wes Agar’s wickets: “They were proper, proper nuts.”
Surrey’s Sean Abbott said: “It’s obviously not the way we’d want to finish the day but I think we had a beautiful start getting five for 50 odd. Then two of their boys to got together and put on a decent partnership and it sort of went from there.
“In saying that I think we bowled pretty well for most of the day, there were a lot of edges that went in the gaps for four but I certainly think that if we look back as a bowling group maybe there’s a few balls we’d like to have back.
“I thought we bowled pretty well through the day but without much luck in the middle and towards the end there. We’ve got a big day batting tomorrow.
“Cox played extremely well and credit to him. They’ve obviously had ait of a tough season and we haven’t been beaten yet so it needed a couple of their boys to stand up and he certainly did and made sure he was there batting with the rest of the guys down the order. Credit to him, I thought he did a brilliant job.”