Sir Alastair Cook notched the 123rd half-century of his bejewelled career as he steered Essex into a commanding position on the first day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Kent.

  Cook, still there at the close on 64, was joined in an unbeaten first-wicket stand of 106 by Nick Browne, who was painstakingly attempting to rebuild his flagging form after a run of three successive ducks. He was on the path to redempton with 31 from 117 balls.

  Earlier, Kent elected to bat on a green-tinged wicket under heavy grey clouds that necessitated the use of floodlights after an hour. Their innings lasted just short of two sessions for 207 as the lower-order threw away their wickets with some abandon.

  Only a sedate 58-run fourth-wicket partnership between Ben Compton, who recorded an 81-ball 47, and captain Jack Leaning interrupted a regular clatter of wickets with nagging seamers Sam Cook and Jamie Porter sharing six of them equally.

  Twanda Muyeye survived a decent chance to Matt Critchley at third slip before he was beaten for pace to present Sam Cook with the first of three wickets for 19 in 11 overs.

  Next ball Joe Denly’s miserable season continued when he played down the wrong line and was caught behind for his fourth duck of the season, and eighth in single figures from 10 visits to the crease.

  To compound Kent’s problems, Harry Finch faced 15 deliveries without scoring when he set off for a non-existent single to gully where Paul Walter swooped and hit the single stump he could see.

  Compton and Leaning settled in for a stand that needed 17 overs to put on fifty, and that despite Compton hitting Doug Bracewell for three successive boundaries, two through the covers, the other a flick off his legs.

  However, to the last ball before lunch Compton attempted to dig out a fuller delivery from Simon Harmer and only succeeded in chipping the ball back tamely to the bowler.

  Leaning followed soon after the break when he got a thick edge to one from Cook that went away from him and wicketkeeper Adam Rossington took a fine diving catch to his right. Joey Evison went shouldering arms to one that came back late from Bracewell.

  Grant Stewart smashed Harmer for two straight sixes in a brisk, seven-over stand of 43 with Jordan Cox before Porter found a peach of a ball to remove Cox.

  Porter then set a short-ball honey-trap for Stewart who hooked straight to one of an army on the boundary, and two balls later Matt Quinn skied rashly to midwicket. Arshdeep Singh swept Critchley for a huge six and wafted lazily at the next ball and was stumped without bothering to look back.

  When Essex replied in the evening session, Cook slipped into imperious mode after a watchful start, showing an array of shots around the wicket in depositing Stewart for three successive fours, though he was put down off the same bowler to s sharp chance in the gully.

  Of the fifty partnership in 17 overs, Cook contributed 38 with Nick Browne playing second fiddle with a dozen; of the century partnership Browne had 27 and Cook 63. Cook passed fifty for the fifth time this season when he swept Hamid Qadri for his 10th boundary.

  Essex, incidentally, will be reinforced with the inclusion of Dan Lawrence in their batting line-up on day two as he returns south after being the spare man in the England XII for the concurrent fourth Test at Old Trafford. He will replace Robin Das.

Essex’s Sam Cook said: “It’s been a pretty good day for Essex. I think that on the whole, if you had offered us that at the start of play, we would have bitten your hand off. To bowl them out for 200 on that wicket was a pretty decent effort from a bowling point of view but then to be 100 for none at the close, well it doesn’t get much better than that. So overall, yes a very good day for Essex.

  “I think if we had won the toss, we probably would have batted. But we chatted this morning and said if we were bowling, there were overhead conditions around to probably help the seamers. So, we were quite happy to bowl.”

  Cook was on a hat-trick and reflected: “On that wicket, I was just trying to attack the stumps as much as possible. There wasn’t an awful lot of pace in it. The first one was an inswinger so that was nice that it swung back and cleaned him up and then the ball after, I just went for a wobble seam and it just managed to hold and take the edge. So, it was nice to get on a roll and get those couple of quick wickets.

  “We like to try and break things down session by session and not look too far ahead, but given the platform that we’ve got, we are in a good position to build on that. We’ve got Dan [Lawrence] coming back tomorrow so that will enable us to accelerate the game if we need to.”

Kent’s Ben Compton said: “You’re facing a difficult task here because you’re faced with multiple threats. It’s a very dry wicket, a used wicket, so you’re inclination is to bat first because Essex’s threat with the ball is Harmer, especially on a dry wicket so you try to go in first.

  “But Essex are also excellent exponents with the new ball. That is the scenario you are faced with. It did a bit in the morning and they bowled nicely and took a few wickets. We had a few partnerships that didn’t quite perhaps take it as far as we would have liked. We just didn’t build any momentum for long enough.

  “It was a tough day and at the end we were probably a bit inconsistent with the ball, as we were with our batting.

  “I’m not sure if when Jack [Leaning] and I were out was the turning point, but we actually had a bit of momentum there and we just lost it at the wrong time. That kept them in the game constantly and wickets were falling fairly regularly after that.

  “So that partnership was key and it was unfortunate that it ended when it did. We’ve just got to try and find a way of taking 10 wickets tomorrow and seeing where it takes us.

  “I think we have to take a minute to reflect and try and understand what we did and what we can do better. There are three days of cricket and we must focus on that and not feel sorry for ourselves. We need to come tomorrow with a very clear plan of what we want to do. That is the only way to go about it. We’ve got to understand what we did, what we can do and then come back tomorrow. That’s four-day cricket. There’s not too much time to over-assess.”