Lancashire were 38 for one, trailing Kent by 206, after day one of their Vitality County Championship relegation showdown at Canterbury.

Josh Bohannon and Luke Wells were unbeaten on 22 and 14 respectively at stumps, after Beyers Swanepoel had bowled Keaton Jennings for a duck.

Earlier George Balderson and Nathan Lyon took three wickets apiece for second-from-bottom Lancashire, as they bowled out the division’s basement side for 244.

Tawanda Muyeye was Kent’s highest scorer with 59, while Ben Compton made 55.

Although both sides have struggled all season, the crowd for the first day of the 172nd Canterbury week was estimated at over 2,000. Cars were queueing for half a mile down the Old Dover Road and moving so slowly that they were overtaken by hundreds of pedestrians walking up the hill.

If they’d come to see James Anderson they were disappointed. Despite making the trip south he was left out of the squad and, perhaps unable to believe his luck at having been asked to bat against an Anderson-free attack, Compton plundered 11 from Tom Bailey’s opening over.

The scoring rate soon slowed however. Will Williams found Marcus O’Riordan’s edge in the fourth over and although George Bell dropped him, he’d moved on to just 16 when Balderson had him caught at third slip by George Lavelle.

Bailey switched to the Nackington Road end and got Daniel Bell-Drummond for four but Joey Evison joined Compton and batted through to lunch, at which stage it was 102 for two.

It wasn’t a standard interval: the crowd realised Anderson was bowling at one stump on the outfield and around a hundred fans formed a circle to watch. When he’d finished it took him nearly five minutes to reach the pavilion as he stopped for dozens of selfies.

When the outfield had finally cleared Kent suffered a mini-collapse. Evison went for 25, edging Bailey to Matty Hurst, before Balderson claimed two wickets in the space of 10 balls. Harry Finch drove him to Josh Bohannon at mid-off for one and Compton fell to an ankle-high catch by Keaton Jennings at second slip.

That left Kent on 124 for five and it nearly got worse for the hosts as Muyeye was on 23 when he pulled Nathan Lyon to the mid-wicket boundary, only to be dropped by Jack Blatherwick.

Having dropped into the middle order after struggling as an opener, Muyeye responded with his first half-century of the season.

Debutant Charlie Stobo joined him and made an inventive 36 before he was bowled by Nathan Lyon, ending a stand of 82 and leaving Kent on 210 for six at tea.

Swanepoel made 19 before he top-edged Lyon behind and Matt Parkinson went for a nine-ball duck against his former county, lbw to Luke Wells.

Lyon then bowled George Garrett middle-stump for three and although Muyeye was dropped again, this time off Lyon by a sliding Williams, he was lbw to Wells in the next over, denying Kent a single batting point and leaving Lancs to face 14 overs before stumps.

Swanepoel sent Keaton Jennings’ off stump flying for an eight-ball duck but he was the only victim, with Wells just surviving a dicey penultimate over from Stobo.

Lancashire’s George Balderson said: “I think it was a pretty decent day. We had opportunities to make it an even better day than it was but when you bowl first you want to try and take ten wickets in the day and we managed to do that.

“The pitch felt like it had a little bit in it early doors and got better throughout the day so I think overall we can proud of our efforts with the ball and there was a nice little start for Wellsie and Josh at the end.

“I think we knew when we bowled first that it wasn’t a case where we were going to blow them away on a green seamer, we just thought it gave us the best chance to win the game. If the pitch was going to do anything it was going to do it first up this morning. 240 is a decent effort and if we can bat well we’ll see how good a score it is.

“It’s a little bit slow. There’s a bit of seam movement, I think it will spin a little bit as well but it felt like if you missed with the ball it was easy to score. The outfield’s quick here, it’s a nice place to bat if you can get in, so I think that’ll be the key thing for us tomorrow. If we can get a couple of people in they can really capitalise and get on top of them.

“I was pleased, it’s probably as well as I’ve bowled all season to be honest, it felt like it was, at the time I came on in that first session we were struggling a little bit. We hadn’t done as well as we wanted to do and it was almost a case of trying to bowl as many dots as possible and bowl in good areas. I was able to do that, we managed to have a better afternoon session and we finished it off well at the end.”

Kent’s Tawanda Muyeye said: “I think we obviously left a lot of runs out there. It wasn’t easy for the guys starting this morning, but everyone’s pretty upbeat, the pitch is doing bits so hopefully we can utilise that new ball in the morning and everyone can get some rest tonight and go again tomorrow morning.

“I think it was a nice pitch to play on, I think as a batter you got value for your runs and as a bowler you got value for bowling well. It’s a pretty good cricket wicket so hopefully as the game unfolds it’ll become interesting.

“You always look back and think what could have been but I think we just have to take it on the chin and crack on. Hopefully when we go back in in the second innings we can make it count. It’s been pretty tough going (this season) so to go out there and face one of the best spinners in the world, I mean I wouldn’t say I was perfect against him but to just go against my natural game and absorb the pressure, I couldn’t really go out there and play shots so I was just happy to just absorb and it was pretty cool facing Nathan Lyon.

“Last week in the nets I started hitting it pretty well I’ve kind of gone back to my old tekkers, going back to what I know and what I trust. It seems like I’m moving a bit better and hopefully I’ll get back to where I need to be.”