Coles' five-wicket surge leaves Derbyshire staggering

Derbyshire 67 for 7 (Coles 5-20) trail Kent 205 (Northeast 85, Footitt 5-45)
Scorecard

Draped in sunshine, this was a day that showed off Canterbury at its picturesque best: a time for suntan lotion, ice cream and fun on the bouncy castle. When Kent chose to bat after winning the toss, their bowlers would have envisaged a lazy Sunday afternoon enjoying their batsmen's attractive strokeplay.

No one, anywhere, was talking about Wirksworth 1874. That game, 141 years ago, was the scene of Derbyshire's lowest score - a paltry 36 - against Kent. It was a record that seemed briefly threatened as Matt Coles decimated Derbyshire's top order. His new ball burst of 5 for 8 rendered Derbyshire's commendable efforts with the ball rather futile.

Coles has just turned 25 yet the mantle of attack leader sits easily on his broad shoulders, as the broad grim he wore leading Kent off in the evening sunshine was testament to. Recent weeks have confirmed him as a cricketer of rare talent: the sight of Kumar Sangakkara being beaten for pace, as Coles managed at Beckenham, is rarely spotted in the shires.

After Kent's disappointing total of 205, Coles took it upon himself the challenge of wrestling Kent back into the game. Pitching the ball up and moving it late at pace, Coles removed Ben Slater's middle stump and then snared Chesney Hughes lbw before the opening over was out. Tillakaratne Dilshan survived a vociferous lbw appeal off his first ball; it looked like he had been saved by an inside edge.

It mattered not. Dilshan drove aerially at a delivery that moved away in Coles' next over, and Derbyshire were 0 for 3. Ten minutes from Coles had undone the hard-earned gains Derbyshire's bowlers had won over five excellent hours.

Worse was to follow. Twenty-seven balls of toil for Billy Godleman, Derbyshire's skipper here in lieu of Wayne Madsen, ended when he was neatly snaffled by Sam Northeast in the slips. Scott Elstone followed in Coles' next over, trapped lbw on the crease for a duck.

Coles had been cheered on by a boisterous bunch on the bank who, as Derbyshire slumped to 23 for 5, took delight in mocking them with a few renditions of 'Can we play you every week?' Darren Stevens ensured they had no reason to stop as two batsmen perished lbw to his nagging wicket-to-wicket bowling; when Wes Durston was dismissed, he had scored 35 of Derbyshire's 37 runs.

As they closed amid the wreckage of a scorecard that read 67 for 7, how removed Derbyshire's mood must have been from a few hours earlier. In ordinary circumstances, limiting Kent to 205 batting first at Canterbury would have been cause for celebration.

In an international summer that will largely be defined by how well England play left-arm pace - they didn't begin well against Trent Boult and now Australia's two Mitchells lie in wait - Mark Footitt is tantalising some with the prospect that England might be able to retaliate in kind. Not that you would suspect as much from his run-up. Footitt begins rather diffidently, only accelerating onto the crease with his last few paces. Even then there seems to be something missing; Footitt has a lazy right-arm that falls away in his delivery stride.

It is an apparent chink that some coaches have tried to rectify. They shouldn't have bothered. Under Graeme Welch's astute guidance, Footitt has embraced his flawed action to produce startling results. Following a back operation after the 2012 season, Footitt took 42 first-class wickets in 2013 - then a career best - and doubled his tally in 2014.

Here, he took his ninth first-class five-wicket haul since the start of 2014. Showing the timeless value of a left-armer who can jag the ball back to the right-hander from over the wicket, Footitt trapped Daniel Bell-Drummond and Rob Key lbw in the day's very first over. As one would expect, and hope, of a bowler who can touch 90mph, Footitt has a venomous short ball, delivered with no discernible change in his action. But he deployed it as a weapon of shock rather than stock, and all five of his wickets came with deliveries pitched up.

Unlike Footitt, Tony Palladino has no such England aspirations, yet he is scarcely less valuable to Derbyshire. Armed with a sweatband on his left wrist, Palladino's action is immaculately grooved. While he normally shapes the ball away from the right-hander, Palladino can get deliveries to nip back, as Fabian Cowdrey found out when a ball that he left alone removed his off bail. It was testament to Palladino's parsimony that he did not concede a boundary until his 104th delivery; only at the end of his 18th and final over did his economy rate nudge above one.

Yet Kent had significant spells when they seemed unperturbed. Northeast's straight drives had the locals purring during a stand of third-wicket stand of 96, at over four runs an over, with Joe Denly. When Calum Haggett and Adam Riley later added an untroubled 53 for the ninth-wicket, there was no hint of the bedlam that was to come in the final two hours of the day.

As three wickets fell with the total on 146, a Kent supporter captured the mood by grumbling: "Dilshan's looking at it thinking this is a bloody good wicket." But on this barmy, utterly intoxicating day, the Sri Lankan would be one of eight batsmen to be dismissed for a duck.