
James Fuller took 5-21 as Hampshire dominated on day one of their County Championship game with Kent at Canterbury, crushing the hosts for just 95 before going 89-0 at the stumps.
Kyle Abbott also played for the visitors, with numbers 3-23.
Tawanda Muyeye was the hosts’ top scorer with 28 but Kent collapsed from 94 to 6, losing their last four wickets for a lone run in the space of 15 balls.
Fletcha Middleton and Joe Weatherley were not absent from the stumps, 39 and 38 respectively and the visitors trail by just six, with all 10 first inning wickets remaining.
A pregnant skyline greeted the sides at the Spitfire Ground and to precisely no one’s surprise, Hampshire opted to bowl after winning the toss, cashing in almost immediately.
Ben Compton went without scoring, edging Mohammad Abbas at Weatherley in the slips and Zak Crawley made just seven before he was under Keith Barker, for his 500th first-class wicket.
Muyeye, back in the side after scoring a glut of points for the second XI, looked more at home, but after a typically attractive 28 he was inferior to Fuller.
Kent announced before the start of play that Sam Billings was playing as a specialist hitter, with Jordan Cox guarding the wicket. The official reason to allow him to focus on his stick after a series of suboptimal scores, but it did little to improve his luck.
With the rain already falling, he was under Fuller for two, until the eighth delivery he faced. With Kent floundering on 56-4, Cox came out of the clubhouse but the rain then became too heavy for the referees to ignore and play did not resume until 3.58pm BST.
By then the conditions had improved, but the stick didn’t seem any easier. Cox struck out 12 before Fuller got him behind and Joey Evison was next, leaving a delivery from Fuller that clipped the top of his stump.
Jack Leaning at least offered some resistance, trailing for 96 balls until Abbott had him caught by Liam Dawson on second slip for 24, but when he was gone the tail was wiped out.
Grant Stewart became Fuller’s fifth victim when he was caught late for 14 and Hamid Qadri was out for a five-ball duck, driving Abbott to Barker halfway through.
A dismal inning ended when Wes Agar was caught by Ben Brown off Abbott for nothing. Kent’s joyless day was summed up as Weatherley took Agar behind when he was 29 and Cox failed to hang onto a routine chance.
Report provided by the ECB Reporters Network.