County Championship: Seamers give Surrey the edge at Kent

South Africa-born seamer Tom Curran has taken 33 wickets in his first-class cricket

Three wickets apiece from Tom Curran and Matt Dunn helped Surrey edge the first day against Kent at Beckenham.

Kent lost Joe Denly for a duck after opting to bat, before an aggressive 133-run stand between Rob Key (89) and Sam Northeast (73) helped them recover.

But Curran (3-64) and Dunn (3-65) tore through the middle order to reduce the home side from 182-2 to 237-7.

With Kent bowled out for 282, opener Zafar Ansari then fell cheaply as Surrey ended the day 265 runs behind.

The recalled Key's half century was his first of the season, having dropped himself for the last two matches, before Ansari removed the former England opener to spark a collapse.

But, when Surrey batted, Matt Coles then trapped Ansari lbw to hurt the visitors' chances of picking up their first away win of the new County Championship campaign.

Kent captain Rob Key:

"I was really looking forward to today and felt refreshed after my short time away from the first team.

"I had a lot less going on in my head, and I enjoyed just getting back to being a batsman.

"I loved today, although as a team we missed a huge opportunity to go on and get a massive total because Sam and I were cruising along out there when we got to 182 for two."

Surrey bowler Matt Dunn:

"It's a very good cricket wicket and when Key and Northeast were batting it didn't look good for us.

"But we kept trying to put pressure back on their batsmen by putting the ball in the right place, and it worked for us."