Kent batsman Sam Northeast is keen to keep his place in the side, having started the season in the second team.

The 22 year old opening batsman had to watch on from the sidelines as on loan batsman Scott Newman was given the opportunity to open the batting alongside skipper Rob Key back in April, but weight of runs in the second eleven saw Northeast given the chance to play for the first team.

Since then, Northeast has flourished in all formats of the game, whether it be opening in the County Championship, coming in down the order in the CB40 or opening the batting alongside Sam Billings in the Twenty 20.

Last week, Northeast was given the honour of captaining the side against the touring South Africans and the former England Under 19 international told KSN how he was pleased with the unbeaten opening partnership he shared with Daniel Bell-Drummond to secure a draw at Canterbury:

“I was happy with getting a fifty right at the end there and they were obviously happy with where they were at, so we finished early, it was a good game overall and we really enjoyed it.”

“We were always wary of a unbelievable ball from Steyn was around the corner, or a Morne Morkel bouncer, you can never really take your eyes of these guys or let your guard down.”

“It’s always pleasing to spend time in the middle. I would have liked to have continued, but as the game stood, there was no point carrying on.”

Northeast ended the second innings unbeaten on 54 to follow up his 35 in the first innings, but it was Bell-Drummond at the other end that was left stranded on 48 not out when Northeast shook hands with Graeme Smith at 5pm and the stand in skipper explained why they didn’t bat on to allow his to register a half century:

“I said to him about 3-4 overs before we finished that Graeme Smith had just come up to me and said would you like to finish at five, so I said it was totally up to him how he wanted to play.”

“He said he’d prefer a not out and then went on to have a moo over cow corner, so I didn’t quite know what was going on!”

“He played unbelievably well and showed this week what a class player he really is and I’m sure we will see a lot more of him.”

As for captaining the side, Northeast explained how he had been honoured to have been asked:

“I’d really been looking forward to it and I really enjoyed it. At one point, I did think when they were about 200 for 2, that I’m not sure about this, but the guys came back really well and in the end it was a really good performance.”

For Northeast now, his challenge is to score heavily in the second half of the season and he is keen to retain his place in the Kent side:

“We’d love to do well in both the Championship and CB40. We’ve been playing some good cricket this year and what’s happened in the first half of the season is now irrelavant really, although we’ve put ourselves in a good position and hopefully we can build on that.”

“I need to keep scoring runs, as everyone does in the team. Hopefully this performance had given me a bit more confidence to keep scoring runs and hopefully will keep on going.”

Northeast has been the butt of some of Rob Key’s jokes on twitter alongside bowler Mark Davies for their dress sense and the batsman wanted to put the record straight about his captain’s attire:

“It’s probably fair criticism, yet he’s gone for the Steve Jobs look at the moment and he’s not really up there in the Apple stakes. I can’t believe he’s commenting on me, but I’m sure I’ll get my own back on him at some stage this season!”

Picture by Sarah Ansell. To see more of Sarah’s pictures, visit www.sarahcanterbury.com