Captain Rob Key has admitted that Kent’s performances in their opening two Championship games have not been up to scratch.
Kent started their County Championship campaign with a 125-run defeat away to Worcestershire, before playing out a draw at home to Leicestershire last week, in a game that saw the whole of the first day washed out to rain.
When KSN caught up with him earlier this week, Key admitted that although there were some bright signs, the side had room for improvement in just about every department.
“We haven’t played as well as we could’ve done – there’s no doubt about that”, Key said.
“At Worcester, we didn’t adjust or bat anywhere near well enough. We did well in the first innings to bowl them out after losing what was quite a big toss for a below-par total.
“On a pitch that was hard work to score on, we got ourselves into a position with partnerships but didn’t really capitalise, and we paid for that in the second innings.
“We’ve just not been at 100% with batting and bowling at the moment, which always makes it a little bit tougher than it should be.”
Key’s attempts to force a win in the Leicestershire game saw him make an enterprising declaration with Kent still behind towards the end of day three. As it was, however, Leicestershire’s decision to bat on for longer than some may have expected on the final day made sure that there was very little chance for either side to push for the victory.
“We tried to force it a little bit”, Key said.
“We tried to really step on the gas with Stevo [Darren Stevens] and Sam Billings – they played pretty selflessly actually so we could try and smash our way into a lead. We just felt that without doing that, we could scrape out a lead of 100 by lunchtime the next day and then the game would peter out.
“Leicestershire didn’t really want to entertain it, which I suppose is a compliment in a way! As those games happen when it goes like that, you lose a few wickets and then it just peters out into an inevitable draw.”
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