KENT went head to head with their championship nemesis in the form of Sussex bowler Mushtaq Ahmed in Hove on Wednesday and it was the Pakistan spin wizard who won the day.

Having made a reasonably bright start to the opening day of their LV County Championship season, Kent eventually limped to 216 all out after 59.3 overs with Mushtaq claiming six for 74 in taking his tally of Kentish wickets to 87 in five seasons.

Then, in reply, the reigning champions cantered through to the close to reach 138 for one built around an unbroken stand of 112 for the second wicket that included a 152-minute half-century from opener Richard Montgomerie and an unbeaten 42 from No3 Chris Nash.

Their only casualty came in the 12th over of the reply when Carl Hopkinson mistimed a pull against Robbie Joseph to scoop a catch to Simon Cook at square leg. Kent used six bowlers in a bid to force more breakthroughs but Sussex went into stumps trailing by only 78 runs.

On the hottest day of the summer to date, Kent skipper Rob Key had no hesitation in batting first despite an oddly striped Hove pitch that resembled the bar code on the box of a cheap television.

Key was first to go, with only six to his name, he pushed well forward but outside the line of an in-swinger from left-armer Jason Lewry to fall leg before in the 10th over of the day.

Two deliveries later Martin van Jaarsveld, fresh from finishing his South African season as leading run-scorer, started his English campaign with a duck as he offered no shot to also fall lbw in the eyes of umpire John Steele.

The irony for Kent was Lewry, who lost a stone in weight in recent weeks after picking up a virus, was only playing in this game after team-mate Robin Martin-Jenkins pulled out at the 11th hour with flu.

Thankfully for the visitors, youngster Joe Denly dug in to score a useful 37 from 52 balls including six fours, mainly from forceful pulls, cuts and sweetly-timed straight drives.

His stay came to an abrupt end, however, when, after 80 minutes, he pushed forward to one from Mushtaq that hurried on to graze the inside edge before flying off the pad to Montgomerie underneath the helmet at short leg.

Matt Walker (21) soon followed, edging one to the keeper when pushing away from his body then, just before lunch, Geraint Jones shouldered arms to the ninth ball of his stay to lose off stump to a Mushtaq googly.

Darren Stevens and Yasir Arafat (33) looked in no trouble in adding an attractive 56 in 12 overs either side of the lunch break, but then Arafat was adjudged leg before to his countryman Mushtaq to one that appeared to be going over the stumps.

The dismissal sparked a second Kent collapse as Stevens (35) fenced at a Rana Naved lifter and nibbled to the slip cordon, then Cook (3) and Patel (15) were bamboozled by the wiles of Mushtaq with Kent still 19 short of a first batting bonus.

Debutant Ryan McLaren top-scored with a lusty 44 from 73 balls to at least take Kent past the 200 milestone, but he then waltzed down the pitch to miss an attempted lofted drive to end the innings and gift Mushtaq his sixth victim once Matt Prior whipped off the bails.

At the start of the day, Kent preferred Cook to the off-spin of James Tredwell and there was no place in the squad for fit again Martin Saggers and Neil Dexter.

SCORECARD

Kent first innings

J L Denly c Montgomerie b Mushtaq Ahmed 37
R W T Key lbw b Lewry 6
M van Jaarsveld lbw b Lewry 0
M J Walker c Prior b Kirtley 21
D I Stevens c Kirtley b Naved-ul-Hasan 35
G O Jones b Mushtaq Ahmed 2
Yasir Arafat lbw b Mushtaq Ahmed 33
R McLaren st Prior b Ahmed 44
S J Cook b Mushtaq Ahmed 3
M M Patel st Prior b Ahmed 15
R H Joseph not out 11
Extras 9

Total 216 all out after 59.3 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-26, 2-26, 3-57, 4-73, 5-76, 6-132, 7-150, 8-153, 9-181.

Bowling: Naved 16-2-64-1, Lewry 8-4-23-2, Mushtaq 21.3-2-74-6, Kirtley 14-2-46-1.

Sussex first innings

C D Hopkinson c Cook b Joseph 13
R R Montgomerie not out 52
C D Nash not out not out 42
Extras 31

Total 138 for one after 44 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-26,

Bowling: Joseph 7-0-25-1, McLaren 10-2-29-0, Arafat 7-2-21-0, Cook 7-0-22-0, Stevens 6-1-12-0, Patel 7-2-16-0.

Kent won the toss and elected to bat.