Evergreen Stevens stars with the ball as Hampshire batsmen find life tough at Canterbury

The county have yet to reach 300 in a first class innings in 2020 and this time they were bowled out for 191 inside 75 overs.

The 44-year-old Stevens bowled 27 overs in four separate stints to finish with a season’s best five for 37. The veteran, making his fifth red-ball appearance of a shortened campaign, has now taken 25 wickets at just 16.68 apiece.

In the 13 overs through to the close, Kent lost both their openers in fast-fading light.

Jordan Cox was caught at slip off teenager Scott Currie, making his first class debut, and Daniel Bell-Drummond had his off stump trimmed by Ian Holland as the hosts went in at stumps on 21 for two to trail by 170.

Hampshire are fielding one of their most inexperienced seam bowling attacks ever with Currie,19, Ajeet Dale, 20, and Tom Scriven, 21, having made only two first class appearances for the county between them prior to this game.

Batting first after losing the toss in overcast conditions, Hampshire openers Joe Weatherley and Holland - the latter promoted to open for the first time in the Trophy - made a cautious and watchful start, scoring 36 runs in the opening hour.

Matt Milnes gave Kent their opening breakthrough in the 23rd over when Holland’s airy back-foot waft outside off stump flew off the shoulder of the bat to Heino Kuhn at slip.

Milnes should have picked up a second scalp soon after when Tom Alsop, cutting with just a single to his name, was downed in the gully by Marcus O’Riordan.

Weatherley, on 37, went in the next over - leg before when playing inside the line of a full-length away-swinger from Podmore as the visitors lunched on 89 for two.

Alsop added seven to his score before departing soon after the resumption. Prodding at one that ran away from the left-hander, Stevens, who had switched to bowl down the Nackington Road slope, found an outside edge for Kuhn to take a second catch at slip.

Two balls later Felix Organ, off balance and working to leg, played across a straight one from Stevens to go lbw for a duck and make it 99 for four.

With the floodlights on for the second time Stevens, now swinging the ball at will under cloudy skies, bagged his third by getting one to float up the hill and feather the outside edge of Sam Northeast’s bat for the simplest of catches to the keeper.

The Hampshire skipper departed for 16, then Lewis McManus (17) followed in near identical fashion in Stevens’ next over.

Tom Scriven should have joined them with his score on three but Ollie Robinson downed a diving chance away to his right off the bowling of Grant Stewart.

Stevens rested after a fabulous stint of 10-7-16-4, but Scriven’s let off counted for nought when he nibbled one from Milnes to Robinson, who this time made no mistake.

Robinson took an even better catch three balls later, tumbling away to his right to claim the outside edge off Mason Crane’s bat as he pushed in defence off the back foot.

Ninth-wicket partners Brad Wheal and Currie dug in after tea adding 46 before Currie, on 38, fenced at a Podmore lifter to Robinson.

Stevens wrapped it up soon after when Dale dabbed an away-swinger to the keeper for Robinson’s sixth catch.

Stevens starred, but Milnes (3-54) and Podmore (2-49) offered excellent support.

Currie was delighted to make a contribution with bat and ball.

He said: ‘Playing my first game I wanted to make an immediate impact.

‘It hasn’t always been that way in previous debuts, but it was nice today to contribute with the bat and then get a wicket at the end there.

‘Full credit to Brad Wheal, who stuck around with me after tea. It’s always difficult coming here because you know the quality of their attack. They've all got good balls in them.

‘We just took it six balls at a time and to see if we could get as near to 200 as possible. I’d got a good start and I’d not faced a lot of their guts before so it was a great experience from that point.

‘I spent all last winter with Jordan [Cox} in the England Under-19 set up, so to get him as my maiden first-class wicket gives me the bragging rights for now.

‘It was nice to get one over on him for a change.’