April 30: Sussex v Kent (Close)

Bowled out for 279 after being put in, the county fought back in the final session with three wickets as Kent reached 81-3 from 31 overs, still 198 behind.

No one in a decent-sized gathering at county headquarters for the first day of the home season could have complained about the lack of entertainment.

For most of the Sussex innings the ball was either beating the bat or flying over the slips and Sussex scored 190 of their runs in boundaries.

Although most of their recognised batsmen got a start no one was able to go on and play a substantial innings.

Skipper Chris Adams looked the likliest candidate. He stroked ten boundaries, the majority in the area between point and mid off, before becoming the second of five victims for Alamgir Sheriyar in the left-armer's first over after lunch.

There were entertaining cameos down the order from Matt Prior, Mushtaq Ahmed and Lewry, whose form with the bat this season has been a revelation, but this was a day for the bowlers.

A slow, greenish pitch encouraged the quicks all day as the ball moved about off the seam, but Sussex's total looked below par until their own bowlers got to work.

Kirtley claimed the important wicket of England batsman Robert Key with the sixth ball of the second over, uprooting his off stump as Key shouldered arms to a ball which nipped back.

Michael Carberry, who has made an impressive start to his Kent career after joining from Surrey in the close season, gloved a ball from Lewry down the leg side and the visitors were struggling at 29-3 in the 11th over when Ed Smith edged Kevin Innes's fourth ball to second slip where Adams dived low to his right to take a stinging catch.

Matthew Walker survived a confident lbw appeal from Kirtley in the next over and Robin Martin-Jenkins beat the bat regularly when he replaced Kirtley at the Cromwell Road End.

Walker and Greg Blewett, the Australian batsman playing for his third county until compatriot Andrew Symonds returns to Canterbury at the end of the month, had added 42 together for the fourth wicket by the close.

Of the seven bowlers who took more than 60 first-class wickets last season Kent now have three of them on their books this season following the winter acquisition of Sheriyar from Worcestershire.

So acting captain Mark Ealham must have felt confident he had the attack to exploit the conditions when he won the toss even though one member of that trio, Amjad Khan, was missing because of sore shins.

Sheriyar came on at the Sea End in the ninth over, Martin Saggers having broken through in the fifth when Murray Goodwin, who had already been dropped at slip, chopped onto his stumps as he played off the back foot.

With his flowing black hair, economical action and smooth approach to the wicket, Sussex supporters of a certain vintage could have been forgiven for thinking it was 20 years ago and they were watching Imran Khan pounding up the Hove slope.

Sheriyar is unlikely to emulate Imran's remarkable career but 450 first-class wickets is a decent enough record and none of the Sussex batsmen played him with any degree of confidence yesterday.

He finished with 5-65 but would have enjoyed even better figures had it not been for dropped catches by Carberry and Smith which reprieved Prior, when he had not scored, and later Kirtley.

Deliveries which swung late accounted for Richard Montgomerie, who offered no shot, and Tony Cottey, taken at third slip as he pushed away from his body in the first 75 minutes, but the key wicket was undoubtedly that of Adams.

The Sussex captain went on to the front foot from the start, driving confidentally through the off side.

The suggestion that it was his day was reinforced when he played a ball from Ealham back on to the base of his stumps but it failed to dislodge the bails.

Cottey and then Tim Ambrose caught the mood as Sussex scored at four an over, helped by the occasional waywardness of Sheriyar and Ben Trott and some sloppy fielding and in the first over after lunch Adams went to his half-century with his tenth boundary.

But he was soon cursing his own carelessness when Sheriyar tempted him into a drive outside off stump and Blewett made a difficult low catch at slip look easy.

Wickets fell regularly after that. Robin Martin-Jenkins nibbled at a ball slanted across him later in Sheriyar's spell, Ambrose was caught behind to give Saggers a second success while Innes departed with a suspicious glance at the pitch after upper-cutting to backward point a ball from Ealham which appeared to stop on him.

That made Sussex 193-7 but Prior and Mushtaq Ahmed adopted a bold approach to a difficult situation and in the next eight overs they had added 49 with a flurry of boundaries.

Prior hit six of them in his 58-ball 40 before opposite number Geraint Jones claimed the third of four catches behind the stumps to give Ealham a second wicket. Mushtaq hit four boundaries in one over of James Tredwell's off spin before perishing to a loose drive off Saggers.

But by then Sussex had secured a second batting point, Lewry having raised his aggregate in three innings this season to 75 having scored 91 runs in 15 visits to the crease last season.

He carved his way to 22 off 13 balls with four boundaries before Sheriyar yorked him to complete the 22nd five-wicket haul of his career. Not quite in Imran's class, but no one in the Kent team was complaining.

Close: Kent 81 for 3 (Sussex 279 all out)