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 diligent enough in seeing out the first 10 overs but the loss of Ben Compton seemed to flick a switch, ushering in a spell of four wickets for 19 runs in the space of 4.5 overs. Chris Rushworth started the collapse when he found Compton’s edge and he was caught behind for nine.

Joe Denly lasted just just four balls before he was lbw to Henry Brookes (3-55) for one and Harry Finch’s first red-ball appearance of the season was even shorter as he made a four-ball duck, Rushworth finding his bottom edge and Michael Burgess taking a sharp catch standing up to the stumps.

Jack Leaning had made a relatively untroubled seven, but when Tawanda Muyeye nudged the ball to mid-on he hared down the wicket and made it almost as far as the strikers’ end before realising his partner hadn’t moved, allowing Will Rhodes to walk in and break the wicket.

Jordan Cox nearly met the same fate and although he was spared by a misfield, he’d made just 15 before he’d pulled Oliver Hannon-Dalby (4-56) to Alex Davies at square leg. A disastrous session for the hosts came to an end when the same bowler had Muyeye lbw for 38 to leave Kent 77-6 at lunch.

If that decision was harsh, Muyeye was the only batter who could really claim he’d been unlucky. Joey Evison went for four in the second over after lunch, victim of a tumbling catch by Burgess after he’d nicked Hannon-Dalby.

Stewart smashed Hannon-Dalby for a six that sailed over cow corner and through the branches of the St. Lawrence lime tree and was joined by Matt Quinn for a stand of 40 that proved the highest of the innings.

Quinn’s frenetic 15-ball cameo yielded a six and three fours before Brookes had him caught by the sub fielder, his brother Ethan, for 25.

Arshdeep Singh hit his first ball for six, but he left the pyrotechnics to Stewart, who dumped Hannon-Dalby for successive sixes over cow corner before his luck ran out when the same bowler had him caught on the boundary for 50 off 45 balls, including five sixes in total.

It had been an entertaining hour, but it looked a low score and lower still as Warwickshire advanced to 69 without loss. The opening stand was broken when Alex Davies was lbw for 42, perhaps unluckily, to Evison.

Hamid Qadri then had Will Rhodes caught behind for 25, but Rob Yates was on 42 when Kent missed a difficult chance to run him out and he and Sam Hain were otherwise unflustered as they batted through the evening session. They added just 48 runs in the last 23 overs of the day but will resume in the morning in a strong position with Australian Glenn Maxwell boosting an already strong batting line-up.