KENT suffered a dismal opening day against Surrey as they slid to 111 for seven in amongst the rain breaks in Canterbury.

Resuming their first innings at 3.30pm after the loss of 48 overs, Kent limped on from 24 for one to lose a further six wickets for only 68 runs as Martin Bicknell and Azhar Mahmood bagged three wickets apiece.

Having lost Ed Smith (0) in the fifth over of the innings to a slip catch by Ali Brown, Kent reached 43 before suffering their next casualty four overs after the re-start.

Alex Loudon had reached 18 with three fours before he too followed a Bicknell leg-cutter to edge low to Mahmood at second slip.

Bicknell then pegged back Michael Bevan’s off stump for seven as the Australian left-hander pushed inside a leg-cutter.

In amongst all the trouble David Fulton went for his shots to score a 72-ball half-century, but then Mahmood got in on the act from the Nackington Road End to leave Kent deep in trouble.

Fulton (57) was late on an attempted pull shot and top-edged to slip, Matthew Walker (3) was caught on the crease and bowled by an in-ducker that plucked out off stump and Niall O’Brien (20) feathered a lifter to give Jonathan Batty his first catch.

Bicknell was then replaced by Tim Murtagh, who joined in the fun by having Matt Dennington (3) caught behind off an away-swinger before the rain arrived again at 4.30pm to force another interruption.