Kent youngster Matt Hunn said it had been “a bit of a whirlwind” after making his first-class debut against Lancashire on Tuesday.

With the club having only announced his signing on Monday afternoon, Hunn came straight into the side for the next day, picking up his first wicket in the process as Lancashire closed the first day on 269-8 at Canterbury, with former South African batsman Ashwell Prince hitting an unbeaten 134.

“I can’t put it into words – it was ridiculous really. I genuinely can’t believe it”, said the Colchester-born seamer.

“Last week I came down for the second team end of season fitness testing, and I thought that was my season done and I’ll just wait until I go out to Australia and then come back next summer. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I found out on Friday that they wanted me to play, they got me registered and sorted it all yesterday, so it was last minute!”

After bowling some impressive deliveries in his opening two spells, Hunn picked up his first wicket towards the end of the day, as Oliver Newby cut a shorter delivery straight to Ben Harmison in the covers.

“I’m glad to have my first day under my belt and also my first wicket – I know it wasn’t how I wanted it to come, but I’ll take them all! It’s obviously nice to get a wicket and get my first one done so now I can move on from that. I didn’t feel I bowled the best that I could – I didn’t get them to play as much as I’d wanted to. It obviously can come out a lot better, so hopefully I’ll be able to do that tomorrow morning and I’ll see how I go from there.”

Hunn admitted it was also a pleasant surprise to be handed the new ball alongside Mark Davies, after Kent skipper James Tredwell won the toss and elected to bowl.

“It was very nice [to be trusted with the new ball]. It was a big surprise as well, but it was lovely to be told that before warm-ups.”

After an even day, with Prince’s gritty knock the only difference between the teams, it would seem honours are about even, although the right-arm fast-medium bowler is confident Kent can still chase their third victory of the Championship season.

“Cricket’s an odd game. You have your lean spells; you have your good spells. When it’s not going your way, you’ve just got to keep working hard and it hopefully comes through. At the moment, we’re in a good position I think, we just need to pick up the next couple of wickets early in the morning and I think we’re on top.

“It’s hard work. If you knuckle down and stick in there, with the new ball it does a bit, but then after that, when the ball’s a bit older and a bit softer, I think that’s when you cash in and score your runs.”

Hunn endeared himself to the Kent faithful immediately, after his opening first-class delivery reared up and took Lancashire opener Luis Reece by surprise, breaking his bat in the process.

“I was thinking just get it up there and get it in a good area. I didn’t realise I’d broken his bat to start off with, and then he said “Oh, I need a new bat!” and I thought: “well, I didn’t expect that!””

Many debutant bowlers won’t have to come up against a batsman of Prince’s stature in their first appearance, and Hunn admitted: “I haven’t bowled at anyone with his class. It was a good challenge, but one I probably didn’t come out on top, but I can’t complain!”

Picture supplied by www.sarahansellphotography.com