Surrey 18 for 2 trail Kent 301 (Cox 133, Evison 58, Abbott 4-52) by 283 runs
A stellar century by Jordan Cox rescued Kent on day one of their LV= Insurance County Championship match with Surrey at Canterbury. The hosts recovered from 41 for 5 to 301 all out, after losing five top order wickets for seven runs in the space of 31 balls.
Cox led the fight back with 133, exactly 100 of which came after he was dropped by Ben Foakes. He was also part of two crucial partnerships, putting on 121 for the sixth wicket with Joey Evison, who made 58, then exactly 100 for the ninth with Wes Agar, who made 51.
Surrey's Sean Abbott took 4 for 52, but the visitors were 18 for two at stumps, trailing by 283 after Wes Agar claimed two late wickets.
The big news before the start of play was Kent's decision to omit Sam Billings after what was described as "mutual discussions around form." The captain had averaged 9.19 so far this season so this wasn't a bombshell, but even this ritual sacrifice did little to improve the mood of a festival crowd during a torrid morning session.
"I think most of the boys knew before," Cox said of Billings' decision. "We've all been struggling for runs, I'm not going to lie, so it was all about scoring runs and I think, for the best interests of the team he was like 'I'm going to step down for this game.'
"He might come in for the next game, but he was like, 'for me, this is what I want to do, this is what I need to do' and that's proper from a captain. A lot of captains would just go 'no, I'm the captain of the team, I need to play,' but he was like 'I want this for the team, I've not been playing well, I understand that. I know I'm captain of the club but it still means I can get dropped' so he's done that and it's shown to the boys that we have to score runs and anyone can get dropped, even Joe Denly, who's played 170 games."
Kent won the toss, chose to bat in front of a good festival crowd and eased through 11 overs, only to lose four wickets for a single run in 13 balls. Both openers fell to slip catches off Abbott in the 12th, Ben Compton for 9, edging the first delivery to Will Jacks at third and Tawanda Muyeye for 21, nudging the final ball to Dom Sibley at first.
The next three batters made ducks. Daniel Bell-Drummond was lbw to Jordan Clark and at the start of the 14th Abbott bowled Joe Denly with a ball that nipped back. Cox survived the hat-trick ball but when Clark had stand-in skipper Jack Leaning caught behind soon afterwards the natives were getting restless.
On the boundary a member greeted another with the polite enquiry: "Good morning, all right?" The reply was blunt: "Yes. Only I'm not all right, and it's not a good morning."
Evision's arrival prompted a more defiant yell of: "Come on Joey, they don't like it up 'em," and he at least prevented further damage before lunch, at which point Kent were 80 for 5. It nearly got worse for Kent when Cox edged Abbott, but Foakes dropped a simple chance.
Evison completed his half-century by hooking the same bowler to the boundary and looked well set until he edged Dan Moriarty to Foakes. Surrey's keeper then took a smart catch off Gus Atkinson to get rid of Hamid Qadri for 5, flinging himself to the leg side, before Atkinson sent Quinn's leg stump flying for 10, but Kent were on 211 for 8 at tea, with Agar showing signs he could have been higher up the order.
The runs started to flow in the evening session. Cox reached three figures with an elegant reverse-swept four off Moriarty and although Will Jacks nearly had him caught on the boundary when he was on 123, Sibley had to step over the rope before completing the catch.
The new ball eventually did for Cox, who hit Abbott to Clark at mid-on but the bowler was denied a five-wicket haul when Arshdeep Singh skied the next ball and Burns couldn't cling on.
That drop was less costly as Worrall had Agar caught by Sibley at first slip in the next over, but it left Surrey with 11 overs to navigate before stumps.
Arshdeep's first three overs in county cricket were all maidens but it was Agar who made the breakthrough, drawing Burns into a hook that was caught by Quinn at short fine leg for 15. Nightwatcher Atkinson then fell in almost identical fashion to the final ball of the day, leaving even Kent's most pessimistic fans beaming.
