Kent bowl Lancashire out for 327 on day one of LV= Insurance County Championship at Canterbury

Kent let Lancashire off the hook on day one of their County Championship clash at Canterbury.

Relegation-threatened Kent had Lancashire on 18-3 and 240-8 but the visitors recovered to reach 327 all out at stumps.

Kent at least took the full complement of bowling bonus points, with Matt Quinn and Aron Nijjar both claiming three wickets, with the final one taken on the last ball of the day.

Captain Jack Leaning felt happy with the day’s play. He said: “I think in the context of the day we’re pretty happy with that.

“We were going to have a bat this morning as well, it looked a pretty good wicket. The boys set the tone nicely with the ball this morning but naturally good players like Josh Bohannon (113) are going to score runs if they play well.

“We stuck at it throughout the day and they had a couple of partnerships, but to get them out for 327 and get the last wicket at the end of the day was a nice effort.

“I think it was a good wicket and it was starting to deteriorate and take a little bit of spin, so hopefully we can exploit that when we come to bowl again in the second innings.

“I thought Yuzi bowled really, really well. You saw today the skill level and the class that he’s got, to vary his pace, whether he’s bowling wrong’uns and sliders he’s just a joy to watch from slip and he was really well accompanied by Nijjar at the other end.”

The spectre of the drop has loomed over Kent for most of the season and the equation going into the final game was simple: a single point ahead of Middlesex at the start of play and having just two victories to Middlesex’s three, they will go down if the teams finish level.

Lancashire won the toss and chose to bat, to the relief of home fans awaiting reinforcement in the form of Zak