Kent coach Matt Walker has been reflecting on the winning start to the season and looking ahead to this week’s trip to the Midlands to face Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

“There was so much to be really pleased with,” the coached agreed after the seven wicket win over Northamptonshire at Canterbury.

“It wasn’t the best of pre seasons – sixty odd overs out of six planned days and it left us a bit short. There was a fear that we’d be ring rusty, but was really pleased the way that we started the game after a disrupted start.”

“We quickly found the right length on day one and got the early wickets, and then the response of Joey Evison and Grant Stewart was really good – really gave us a great start.”

“We had to dig deep after that – I thought Zak (Crawley) was outstanding in our first innings giving us the foundation and held the ship together.”

“We were pleased with a hundred run lead, but would have liked some more, but it gave us a head start second innings which we needed as they played really well – Keogh and Berg made it really difficult for us, but we kept going, especially as losing Grant (Stewart) meant we were a bowler light, meaning more work for the guys, but everyone stood up!”

“DBD (Daniel Bell-Drummond) came in and bowled really nicely getting a couple of wickets; Jack Leaning got an important wicket – we stuck to our guns as the pitch got better, really digging deep.”

“On the last day we went in with a really positive attitude picking up wickets early and then the run chase was a really professional one after a sticky start.”

“That winning partnership (between Ben Compton and Leaning) was what we talk about all the time – they steadied things, they were calm and put a partnership together and then made it count!”

“The closer we got to their score, they got a bit flat, and we were able to get home pretty comfortably in the end!”

“We haven’t won the first game at home for a while – six years I think – it was really pleasing to start with a win as we’d talked about it a lot in pre-season and let’s face it, sometimes 220 can be a tricky chase, but the calmness the boys showed and the professional manner they went about it was really pleasing – a real team effort!”

The only downside was an injury to Grant Stewart which meant he was unable to bowl during the second innings. Walker admitted; “It was tough for Grant after bowling so well in the first innings – a short devasting spell where he hit the straps pretty early on, swinging the ball and picking up wickets too.”

“It’s not ideal to pick up an injury in the first game and I don’t think it’s too serious, but he won’t play at Edgbaston this week. He recognised there was something wrong pretty quickly and didn’t bowl again.”

“There’s a bit of soreness and he’s moving pretty well so shouldn’t be out too long fingers crossed.”

“On the plus side, both Nathan Gilchrist and Freddie Klaassen have both played red ball cricket this week for the seconds at Hove. Nathan picked up a back niggle pre-season and just needs some cricket, and Fred too after a very busy winter for him with the Netherlands and a lot of white ball cricket.”

“He’s always maintained with us that he wants to improve his red ball cricket and put his name to the forefront when it comes to red ball.”

“There’s going to be a lot of demand for his skills – we know he’ll be pulled away when the Netherlands have international cricket, but there will be the other periods when we have him and opportunity for him to play international cricket.”

Walker confirmed the loan signing – for two games – of Surrey seamer Conor McKerr as a replacement for the injured Stewart.

“Nathan’s not quite ready yet and Fred hasn’t played a red ball game since the back end of last season, so we’ve gone for the experienced option of Conor who’s played a lot of cricket pre-season with Surrey.”

“We know him well and he did a really good job for us last year when he came in. We’ve got him in for a couple of weeks to help us out to give us a bit of flexibility. We’ll see where we are after Warwickshire in rotating the seamers.”

“We’re still struggling to secure the services of an overseas player which is frustrating and tricky, so to have Conor on board definitely gives us another quality experienced bowler!”

Picture supplied by Max Flego Photography.