Kent’s opening County Championship match of the season away at Yorkshire may have ended as a draw, after rain cut short the final day, but there were plenty of positives for Jimmy Adams’ side to take away from Headingley.

Picking up 10 points in a winning draw compared to Yorkshire’s nine; Kent will also take heart from a number of excellent performances throughout the team. Matt Coles, batting at number nine, hit a superb 103 not out from just 111 balls, his maiden first class century, later picking up the wicket of opening batsman Joe Root in Yorkshire’s first innings.

There were also a number of impressive performances from Kent’s new signings – six of the starting XI joined the club in the off season.

Opening batsman Scott Newman, signed on a two-month loan deal from Middlesex, hit 64 in an excellent opening partnership of 141 with skipper Rob Key, who fell three short of the making the first century of the county season, run out for 97. Ben Harmison, Brendan Nash and Michael Powell also made decent contributions in their first knocks for the club, making 45, 67 and 37 respectively.

On the bowling side of things, Mark Davies, who joined up with the squad shortly before their pre-season training camp in Antigua at the start of last month after leaving Durham at the end of last year, hit 58 in the Kent innings, ably supporting Coles, before taking 3-48 in the Yorkshire first innings. Charlie Shreck started relatively slowly, before impressing in closing out the Yorkshire innings, as he took 4-6, finishing with figures of 4-90.

Shreck also went on to pick up two wickets in Yorkshire’s cut-short second innings, as did spinner Adam Riley, as Kent looked to push on and pick up the victory that their performance deserved.

Unfortunately, it was not to be, but there are many things that captain Rob Key and Coach Jimmy Adams will take from the game, and look to build on before their next match, starting on Thursday against Northamptonshire in Northampton before the first home game of the season against Gloucstershire at Canterbury beginning on Thursday 19th April.

It should also be remembered that this was far from a full strength Kent squad that Key and Adams had at their disposal, with James Tredwell away with the England squad in Antigua, Azhar Mahmood, currently playing in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab, and promising youngsters Adam Ball and Daniel Bell-Drummond away with England under-19s.

If the team that impressed at Headingley can pull out some more impressive individual performances as they did in this opening game, however, and with these faces still to reappear, Kent should be in good stead moving forward in the season.