Hampshire 89 for 0 (Middleton 39*, Weatherley 38*) course knows 95 (Muyeye 28, Fuller 5-21, Abbott 3-23) by six runs
James Fuller took 5 for 21 as Hampshire dominated the first day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match with Kent at Canterbury, bowling the hosts for just 95 before reaching 89 with no loss at stumps.
Kyle Abbott also played for the visitors claiming 3 for 23 while Tawanda Muyeye was the hosts top scorer with 28, but Kent collapsed from 94 for 6 to lose their last four wickets for a solitary run in the space of 15 balls.
Fletcha Middleton and Joe Weatherley were not out for stumps, on 39 and 38 respectively and the visitors were only six behind, with all 10 wickets remaining in the first innings.
A pregnant skyline greeted the sides at the Spitfire Ground and to the surprise of just nobody, Hampshire chose to bowl after winning the coin toss, cashing in almost immediately. Going without scoring, Ben Compton beat Mohammad Abbas at Weatherley in the slips and Zak Crawley made just 7 before being lbw to Keith Barker, for his 500th first-class wicket.
Muyeye, back in the side after scoring a plethora of points for the second XI, looked more at home, but after a typically attractive 28 he was lbw for Fuller.
Kent announced before the start of play that Sam Billings was playing as a specialist batsman, while Jordan Cox kept the wicket. The official reason was to allow him to concentrate on his batting after a series of sub-optimal scores, but it did little to help his luck. With the rain already falling, he was lbw to Fuller for 2, to the eighth delivery he faced.
As Kent struggled at 56 for 4, Cox emerged from the pavilion, but the rain then became too heavy for the umpires to ignore and play did not resume until 3:58 p.m.
By then, conditions had improved, but batting didn’t seem any easier. Cox scrambled out 12 before Fuller got him behind and Joey Evison was next, leaving a Fuller delivery that cut off the top of his stump.
At least Jack Leaning put up some resistance and hung around for 96 balls until Abbott let Liam Dawson catch him at second slip for 24, but when he went the tail was swept away.
Grant Stewart became Fuller’s fifth victim as he fell 14 down and Hamid Qadri was out for a five-ball duck, which drove Abbott to Barker halfway.
A dismal innings ended when Wes Agar was caught for nothing by Ben Brown off Abbott. Kent’s joyless day was encapsulated when Weatherley put Agar down at 29 and Cox failed to hold down a routine chance.
