Not content to have fought through to Twenty20 Cup finals day and next month's Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord's, Robert Key's Kent team are scrapping it out on a third front in the LV County Championship.

Given the punishing schedule they are enduring, which by this weekend will have allowed them to enjoy only three days off in 53 days, it is a worthy achievement by a team who insist that, as yet, they have not really played their best cricket.

Certainly, yesterday, in glorious sunshine and on a sluggish but by no means difficult pitch, they rather made a meal of reaching the 140 required for victory when Key and Joe Denly began their second innings at the start of the day.

Yorkshire, outplayed for much of the second and third days after initially galloping to 341 for two on Friday, suddenly found heart and hope, thanks to an excellent new-ball spell of 11-2-27-2 from Matthew Hoggard.

Two quick wickets from Adil Rashid, the leg spinner, the second courtesy of a rash charge down the pitch by Darren Stevens to his third ball, left Kent a nervy 63 for four. Although Martin van Jaarsveld lifted some of the tension with four boundaries in five balls from Rashid as he purred to 41 by lunch, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan then incurred a serious Kentish wobble by striking three times in two overs.

His first ball after the interval accounted for Van Jaarsveld, and the sixth sent back Justin Kemp. Azhar Mahmood emerged at 102 for six, but, six runs later, in Naved's next over, he was also on his way as Terry Urben, standing in for the ill Richard Kettleborough, adjudged him caught at the wicket.

When Yasir Arafat, on eight and with the total 118 for seven, edged Naved just short of Jacques Rudolph at first slip, Kent's anxiety was tangible.

Arafat, however, who made a significant all-round contribution to this victory, clipped the next ball to the mid-wicket boundary and, with Geraint Jones looking secure at the other end, Kent did not endure any further alarms. Key paid tribute to his bowlers after this second successive championship win, with Azhar's six for 55 in Yorkshire's first innings a crucial performance, and to the slip catching of Van Jaarsveld and Kemp, who each took three blinders on Sunday and which, he said, “made all the difference in the end”.

With Ryan McLaren rested from this game, with Azhar being sensibly managed in terms of appearances, and with Key - whose 157 here keeps him in the England Test frame - and Van Jaarsveld providing class at the top of a deep batting order, Kent are building an impressive momentum of success. Especially since, as they keep saying, they have yet to fire to their full capacity.

Yorkshire: First Innings 410 (A McGrath 144, J A Rudolph 129, A Lyth 50; Azhar Mahmood 6 for 55)

Second Innings 196 (G L Brophy 51; Yasir Arafat 4 for 38)

Kent: First Innings 467 (R W T Key 157, Yasir Arafat 90 not out; A U Rashid 5 for 140)

Second Innings

J L Denly c Bresnan b Hoggard 19
*R W T Key c Brophy b Hoggard 15
J C Tredwell c Rudolph b Rashid 6
M van Jaarsveld lbw b Naved 41
D I Stevens st Brophy b Rashid 4
J M Kemp c Brophy b Naved 10
G O Jones not out 20
Azhar Mahmood c Brophy b Naved 2
Yasir Arafat not out 19
Extras (b 4, lb 2) 6

Total (7 wkts, 38.3 overs) 142

Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-37, 3-51, 4-63, 5-101, 6-102, 7-108.

Bowling: Hoggard 11-2-27-2; Bresnan 10-1-31-0; Rashid 9-0-46-2; Kruis 4-0-8-0; Naved 4.3-0-24-3.

Umpires: T E Jesty and R A Kettleborough.