Kent Coach Jimmy Adams believes his side are showing the right characteristics to go on on and become a high quality side.

An unbeaten start to the County Championship season sees Kent go into Wednesday’s game with Northamptonshire in third place in Division Two, just seven points behind leaders Derbyshire.

Rob Key’s side showed great determination to get themselves out of a hole by battling for a draw at Essex last week with Darren Stevens and Geraint Jones putting on a 194 run partnership after coming in with the side deep in trouble at 9 for 5.

That kind of resolve is the kind of thing Adams is looking for in his side and told KSN how he is pleased with how things are going so far:

“It’s been testament to the amount of effort the lads have been putting in. Jones and Stevens did extremely well to get out us out of trouble and the bowlers did just as well on a quieter surface to get us some bowling points.”

“All things considered, to get ourselves the points we did after being in that position on the first day against Essex showed a lot of character.”

“To be fair to the players on that day, it could have been 9 for 8, or it could have been 9 without loss, it was a pretty sporty wicket and credit where it’s due, the Essex bowlers put the ball in the right areas.”

The Essex game started under floodlights because of the awful weather at the time, but Adams doesn’t feel that was much of a factor for losing five quick wickets:

“I have played Test matches and One Day Internationals under floodlights and of course nothing compares to natural light, but you have got to back the umpires as they have played the game.”

“We have to make an effort for the paying public, but to be fair, that wicket would have been a handful in any light. It was very bowler friendly conditions and they bowled very well in it.”

One major positive to come out of that game for Adams was the debut of seamer Ivan Thomas who showed plenty of ability and picked up the vital wickets of James Foster and Mark Pettini:

“He bowled well and he is well aware having done pre-season with us, how we want our bowling unit to function. He showed us that he has the capacity to do it and I think he had a really good debut.”

Thomas will drop out of the side for the game against Northamptonshire with Matt Coles set to return in his place having spent the past week with the England Lions and Adams feels the fast bowler is heading in the right direction:

“He’s been taking wickets and he’s not been taking them by luck. He’s been consistant and you can’t ask any more than that.”

“Sometimes you can be consistant and not get wickets, sometimes you get wickets by being inconsistant, but I’m glad his consistancy is being rewarded and long may that continue.”

“He’s a very talented young man and we are very proud when he represents Kent on a larger stage and he has certainly represented us well this year.”

Leading the seam attack in recent weeks has been former Durham bowler Mark Davies, showing his ability to keep a steady line and length whilst picking up wickets for Kent and Adams feels he is starting to show what he was brought in for:

“His control is the biggest string to his bow and on decent batting surfaces he has set the standard for everybody else.”

“He does that consistantly and that’s the strength that he brings to the team.”

Earlier in the season, Kent picked up their one win of the season thus far against Northamptonshire, winning by an innings and 120 runs, but Adams is expecting a tougher challenge this week:

“We will need to make sure we play our game well and we will come up against four hard days of cricket. As we prepare, we wrap our minds around having to fight and scrap for everything.”

“They will come at us hard, but we need to make sure that come the end of the four days we can say we gave it our all.”

With the season having been plagued by bad weather thus far, Adams told KSN how it’s a case of allowing the players to relax when they are forced off the field by rain and bad light:

“It’s an individual thing, some people sleep, some people read, some listen to music. It’s a case of allowing them to use that down time the way they want and then when the umpires tell us it’s time to go, we have to get them refocused.”

At the weekend, Kent held their annual Open Day and Adams was thrilled to see so many people turn out at Canterbury:

“It’s great that we get such good local support and Sunday’s activities went along way towards fostering that. We have to make sure that the Cricket Club is part of the local community. It was great weather and I’m glad we got through the whole agenda”