A county season is a marathon and not a sprint, but Kent and Robert Key, their captain, are already puffing out their cheeks in search of a second wind after a chastening first week of the new campaign.

A heavy defeat in the opening LV Championship match against Sussex was yesterday followed by a reverse that was hard to take in the Friends Provident Trophy.

A competition record eighth-wicket stand of 174 between Key and James Tredwell rallied Kent from the depths of 52 for seven to 271. Yet despite taking three wickets in three overs to disrupt a reply initially spearheaded by Scott Newman’s gilded strokeplay, they were still defeated.

While Mushtaq Ahmed was a nemesis at Hove last week, it was two more Pakistanis who undermined Kent here. Azhar Mahmood first combined with Mohammad Akram to rip through the top order and later struck a 45-ball 63 in a stand of 110 in 14 overs with Jonathan Batty to settle matters.

Key, with a six and 14 fours in a courageous run-a-ball hundred, and Tredwell, who added two wickets with his tidy off breaks to a 96-ball 88 featuring three sixes, must have felt as sick as the many thousands pounding London’s roads earlier in the day.