Kent rested leading wicket-taker Matt Milnes but Mahmud had Derbyshire reeling after the first two balls of an overcast morning.
With the floodlights on, conditions looked good for bowling and Mahmud showed the qualities that brought him figures of 6-55 in Bangladesh’s famous Test win over Australia in Darwin last month.
His first delivery lifted at Harry Came who could only edge low to first slip where Zak Crawley made no mistake.
The next ball was full and moved in late, hitting Matthew Montgomery bang in front, his second first ball duck in consecutive innings.
That would have sent shudders through the home camp following Saturday’s capitulation at Bristol but Wayne Madsen negotiated the hat-trick ball and with Yousaf Bin Naeem, restored some order.
They battled through 14 overs until Mahmud’s countryman Khaled Ahmed ensured it would be Kent’s session by removing them both on his debut.
Bin Naeem was beaten by one that came back and kept low before Madsen was squared up and struck in front to reduce the hosts to 64-4.
But that was Kent’s last success for 32 overs as Andersson and Reece, playing his first game for almost a month following a shoulder injury, showed the character and application the hosts desperately needed.
Andersson has been Derbyshire’s stand-out batsman this season and he again rose to the occasion, batting out of his crease to counter any movement, while Reece was equally determined to frustrate the promotion chasers.
They added 91 from 191 balls before Reece got an inside edge off Ekansh Singh and was caught behind which brought in Brooke Guest who had failed to score in his previous three innings.
This time he reached double figures before Mahmud again found late movement to trap him lbw and when Ben Aitchison was beaten by Bertie Foreman’s off-spin, Derbyshire were back in trouble at 172-7.
But Randell offered more dogged support to shepherd Andersson to a richly deserved hundred which came off 159 balls, contained 11 fours, and was applauded by the Kent players.
A batting point was secured before Randall pulled Foreman to deep midwicket and Jack Morley played on to Ahmed to give Kent a third bowling point.
Andersson banked a second point before Mahmud returned to pin Shoaib Bashir lbw but when Compton cut Aitchison to point, the day had turned around in Derbyshire’s favour.
ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay.
