A DOZEN wickets fell on an action-packed opening day at Stockton as Kent succumbed for 179 and then reduced the hosts Durham to 76 for two by the time rain arrived to foreshorten events by 13 overs.

The bone-dry, cracked and pock-marked appearance of the Grangefield Road Ground pitch had been the major talking point prior to the start as Kent’s players, with much scalp-scratching and head shaking clearly took a dislike to what they saw before them.

Indeed, ECB pitch liaison officer David Hughes, the man who docked Kent eight points for a poor pitch at Maidstone last year, took a keen interest in events as the day unfolded.

He and a disappointing first day crowd saw a Kent innings of four ducks, in which only five batsmen reached double figures, where extras finished equal third top-scorer with 27 and one in which the questionable surface of the pitch appeared to play on the minds of every batsman.

Clearly no one felt secure or truly ‘in’ on this surface, yet from beyond the boundary it remained questionable how big a part the pitch actually played in Kent’s 10 dismissals.

Opener Rob Key, having won the toss and elected to bat first in the belief the wicket would fairly quickly deteriorate, certainly had cause for complaint.

Pushing half-forward to Micky Lewis, the ball jagged back off the seam a good 10 inches to find off stump via an inside edge and send him packing for nought.

But after that the old adage of playing straight and each ball on its merits worked well as David Fulton and Martin van Jaarsveld played ultra cautiously to add 71 in 29 overs – it was to prove the highest partnership of the innings.

After facing 105 balls in scoring 27 in a shade under two hours Fulton threw caution to the wind by chasing a loose one from Dale Benkenstein to edge to keeper Phil Mustard to send Kent into lunch on 100 for two.

With a bank of clouds coming across from the direction of Middlesbrough, the ball started to swing a little more which, coupled with the occasional vagaries of the pitch instilled demons in the minds of Kent’s players and the result was a collapse of catastrophic proportions.

Five wickets fell for the addition of five runs in the space of seven overs as Durham’s seamers took a grip on the game.

Matt Walker, working to leg against an Ottis Gibson away-swinger that ended up on off-stump, the left-hander found a thick edge that flew to Jimmy Maher at second slip.

Van Jaarsveld, having battled away for 131 minutes for his 101-ball half-century with eight fours, went back to one from Gibson that shot and cut back to trap him leg before. He shrugged his shoulders and marched off, knowing the pitch had beaten him.

Justin Kemp, off balance to his third ball also went leg before as Gibson, helped by the pitch, claimed three for nought inside 14 balls - there was no such mitigation from there on as Kent wickets continued to tumble.

Darren Stevens chased a wide one from Benkenstein to be caught low down in the gully and, two runs on, Niall O’Brien, in attempting to work to mid-wicket, popped a return catch back to Benkenstein – a possible third dismissal to be blamed on the pitch.

Andrew Hall and James Tredwell took the opinion that attack was the best form of defence and the ploy worked briefly as the eighth-wicket partners added 47 in six overs.

Hall clattered seven fours in reaching 36 and Tredwell hit a couple of boundaries in his 16 before Kent’s resistance shattered.

Tredwell edged a leg-side flick off the impressive Graham Onions to be caught behind, Hall fatally worked across the line to lose his off stump to the same bowler and Min Patel edged a hook-shot to the keeper to leave the visitors 21 short of a first batting bonus point.

It all meant Kent had lost nine wickets for 97 runs, with three apiece going to the triumvirate of Benkenstein, Onions and Gibson – the last two sharing 6 for 38 in 11.2 overs from the Grangefield Road End, the Eastern End of this Teesside venue.

It came as no surprise then when, in the third over of Durham’s reply, Amjad Khan nipped one back off the seam to uproot Jonathan Lewis’s off stump with only four on the board.

But then Jimmy Maher and Gordon Muchall, who scored 219 in the reverse fixture in Canterbury in April, applied similar principles to Fulton and van Jaarsveld earlier in the day to take the score on to 56.

But, with his score on 27, Maher tossed away his wicket by driving loosely to extra cover against Justin Kemp.

Then, with the weather closing in, van Jaarsveld downed a catch at slip that allowed Muchall to survive through to the close and take his side to within 107 of Kent’s total.

SCORECARD

Kent first inning

R W T Key b Lewis 0
D P Fulton c Mustard b Benkenstein 27
M van Jaarsveld lbw b Gibson 59
M J Walker c Maher b Gibson 2
D I Stevens c Gibson b Benkenstein 1
J M Kemp lbw b Gibson 0
A J Hall not out 0
N J O’Brien c & b Benkenstein 0
J C Tredwell c Mustard b Onions 16
M M Patel not out 0

Extras 27

Total 179 all out after 61.2 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-11, 2-82, 3-109, 4-112, 5-112, 6-112, 7-114, 8-161, 9-171.

Bowling: Lewis 6-2-24-1, Onions 10.2-3-43-3, Gibson 16-7-25-3, Benkenstein 20-10-52-3, Breese 7-1-18-0, Iqbal 2-0-11-0.

Durham first innings

J J B Lewis b Khan 4
J P Maher c Stevens b Kemp 27
G J Muchall not out 35
G M Scott not out 0

Extras 10

Total 76 for two after 26.4 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-4, 2-56,

Bowling: Khan 8-0-40-1, Hall 8-5-6-0, Stevens 5.4-1-13-0, Kemp 5-1-13-1.

Bonus points: Durham 3pts, Kent 0pts.

* MARK PENNELL'S SECOND DAY REPORT WILL APPEAR HERE AT THE CLOSE OF PLAY THIS EVENING.