Grant Stewart scores 50 in 45 balls but Kent all out for just 171 on day one against Warwickshire (155-2) in County Championship

Kent head coach Matt Walker didn’t hold back after a dreadful first day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash at Canterbury against Warwickshire on Monday.

After the winning the toss, Kent collapsed to 78-7 before a Grant Stewart half-century helped them to 171 all out. Warwickshire then reached 155-2 by the close to put themselves in pole position.

“It wasn’t a great day and we’re up against it,” said Walker. “It wasn’t a bad toss to win at all. It was a good toss to win, we just played very poorly.

“It’s extremely disappointing with the way this group has been batting, to play like that.

“We’ve probably gifted them the major percentage of our wickets today on what was a really docile wicket. I think you can look at Ben Compton getting a fairly decent ball, but most of the players will be pretty disappointed in the way they got out.

“We’ve only got ourselves to blame. To be bowled out in 40 overs on that wicket with the sun shining, we find ourselves in a pretty precarious position. The bottom line is we shouldn’t have been bowling today.

“We should certainly have been in a pretty decent position but it hasn’t happened and we find ourselves right up against it.

“If it hadn’t been for Grant it would have been awful day. It was pretty dreadful but it would have been even worse. It gave us some sort of respectability but it was a bit of a mad dash at the end. 170 isn’t going to cut it on a wicket like that.

“Second time round we’ve got to have a hard think about how we go about it. There were too many soft dismissals and a stupid run out and we find ourselves in that position.”

Kent chose to bat in sunshine at The Spitfire Ground, but approached their innings as if they were still in T20 mode.

Their openers were