Key reaches milestone

County Championship D1, Tunbridge Wells, day one (stumps): Kent 416-4 v Lancashire

Match scorecard

I let myself down when I had my chance [with England] last year Robert Key

Robert Key became the first man to reach 1,000 first-class runs this season as Kent began strongly against Lancashire at Tunbridge Wells.

On day one of the Divsion One match at Tunbridge Wells, Key hit 180 in an impressive total of 416-4.

Key shared an opening stand of 83 with David Fulton and was then joined by Ed Smith (116) in a massive partnership of 229.

Both Smith and Key lost their places in the England side last year.

Kent had no hesitations in opting to bat first against a Lancashire side with neither James Anderson (injured) nor Sajid Mahmood (resting) available.

And Key promptly went out and collected his sixth century in all first-class cricket this season, and remarkably his fifth in his last seven innings.

The 25-year-old right-hander profited most often with drives down the ground, while Smith was keener on beating the sweepers square on either side of the ground.

Key guided change bowler Mark Chilton to third man to bring up his 1,000 and reached his century with a perfect on-drive off Cork.

Kyle Hogg finally removed Smith, and both Key and Andrew Symonds fell before the close, but Lancashire had nothing really to celebrate on Wednesday.

Afterwards, Key played down the significance of his form as far as his England chances are concerned.

He said: "There are other people who are quite rightly ahead of me at the moment. Andrew Strauss has done brilliantly so far.

"I had my chance, and if I was in Andrew or Paul Collingwood's position and suddenly got left out just because someone was making loads of runs for his county I would be disappointed."

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Kent: D P Fulton (Capt), R W T Key, E T Smith, A Symonds, M J Walker, M A Carberry, N J O'Brien (Wkt), M M Patel, Mohammad Sami, D A Stiff, A Sheriyar.

Lancashire: M J Chilton, I J Sutcliffe, A J Swann, S G Law, M B Loye, G Chapple, D G Cork, K W Hogg, S P Crook, W K Hegg (Capt Wkt), G Keedy.