Warwickshire dominated the first day of their LV= Insurance County Championship with Kent at Canterbury, reaching 155 for two at stumps, a deficit of just 16.

Rob Yates is unbeaten on 53, while Sam Hain is 29 not out.

Earlier Oliver Hannon-Dalby took four for 56 as Kent were bowled out for 171, a score that would have been even lower had Grant Stewart not blasted 50 from 45 balls. The hosts last three wickets added 93, more than half their total.

Australia’s Glenn Maxwell, originally signed for the Vitality Blast, made a rare first class appearance and bowled five overs, taking nought for 17, having been awarded his Warwickshire cap in a short ceremony before the start.

Kent chose to bat in broad sunshine at The Spitfire Ground, but approached their innings as if they were still in T20 mode.

Their openers were diligent enough in seeing out the first ten overs but the loss of Ben Compton seemed to flick a switch, ushering in a spell of four wickets for 19 runs in the space of 4.5 overs. Chris Rushworth started the collapse when he found Compton’s edge and he was caught behind for nine.

Joe Denly lasted just just four balls before he was lbw to Henry Brookes for one and Harry Finch’s first red-ball appearance of the season was even shorter as he made a three-ball duck, Rushworth finding his bottom edge and Michael Burgess taking a sharp catch standing up to the stumps.

Jack Leaning had made a relatively untroubled seven, but when Muyeye nudged the ball to mid on he hared down the wicket and made it almost as far as the strikers’ end before realising his partner hadn’t moved, allowing Will Rhodes to walk in and break the wicket.

Jordan Cox nearly met the same fate and although he was spared by a misfield, he’d made just 15 before he’d pulled Hannon-Dalby to Alex Davies at square leg. A disastrous session for the hosts came to an end when the same bowler had Tawanda Muyeye lbw for 38.

If that decision was harsh, Muyeye was the only batter who could really claim he’d been unlucky. Joey Evison went for four in the second over after lunch, victim of a tumbling catch by Burgess after he’d nicked Hannon-Dalby and it was left to Stewart to play the Stokes role.

He smashed Hannon-Dalby for a six that sailed over cow corner and through the branches of the St. Lawrence lime tree and was joined by Matt Quinn for a stand of 40 that proved the highest of the innings.

Quinn’s frenetic 15-ball cameo yielded a six and three fours before Brookes had him caught by the sub fielder, his brother Ethan, for 25.

Arshdeep Singh hit his first ball for six, but he left the pyrotechnics to Stewart, who dumped Hannon-Dalby for successive sixes over cow corner before his luck ran out when the same bowler had him caught on the boundary.

It had been an entertaining hour, but it looked a low score and lower still as Warwickshire advanced to 69 without loss. The opening stand was broken when Alex Davies was lbw for 42, perhaps unluckily, to Evison for 42.

Hamid Qadri then had Will Rhodes caught behind for 25, but Yates was on 42 when Kent missed a difficult chance to run him out and he and Hain were otherwise unflustered as they batted through the evening session.

Warwickshire’s Oliver Hannon-Dalby said: “Both me and Rushy thought ‘Oh, Jesus, there’s not a lot of pace in this.’ We thought it was pretty flat to be honest so to bowl them out for 170, we’re delighted.

“There was a little bit of help there. We’re using Kookaburra balls and it swung a little bit early on, so we kept it swinging for about 20 overs and luckily got a few wickets. We got a few soft ones and we had a nice run out, someone was caught on the hook as well so it’s nice when you get wickets like that, but like I said, to get them for 170 on a wicket like this, which is a pretty flat pitch, we’re really happy with it.

“Ideally we’ll go past them at some stage tomorrow early doors and bat as big as we possibly can. I’m a grumpy fast bowler so I’d like to keep my feet up for the next couple of days if possible! If we can go past them and get a really big score that’d be ideal for me.

“I think the Kookaburra probably does a bit less (than the Duke ball) to be honest. The seam’s bit flatter, there’s a little bit of swing early on, but not a lot. It probably swings about 30 overs and even then not a lot, not as much as the Duke. It’s just a little bit of swing and that period from 30 overs to be maybe 60 overs 70 overs when it’s soft it can be really hard work. I think we’ve already seen umbrella fields and the slip doesn’t really come into play, so catchers in front of the bat may be the way to go.”

Kent’s Matt Walker said: “It wasn’t a great day and we’re up against it. It wasn’t a bad toss to win at all. It was a good toss to win, we just played very poorly. It’s extremely disappointing with the way this group has been batting, to play like that.

“We’ve probably gifted them the major percentage of our wickets today on what was a really docile wicket. I think you can look at Ben Compton getting a fairly decent ball, but most of the payers will be petty disappointed in the way they got out.

“We’ve only got ourselves to blame. To be bowled out for 40 overs on that wicket with the sun shining, we find ourselves in a pretty precarious position. The bottom line is we shouldn’t have been bowling today.

“We should certainly have been in a pretty decent position at the end of this but it hasn’t happened and we find ourselves right up against it.

“If it hadn’t been for Grant it would have been awful day. It was pretty dreadful but it would have been even worse. It gave us some sort of respectability but it was a bit of a mad dash at the end. 170 isn’t going to cut it on a wicket like that. Second time round we’ve got to have a hard think about how we go about it. There were too many soft dismissals and a stupid run out and we find ourselves in that position.”