KENT batsmen David Fulton and Rob Key gave the county the best of starts at Canterbury today with a century opening stand against relegation-threatened Northamptonshire.

The pair looked relatively untroubled batting first in helping Kent reach 133 before Fulton went for a 57 scored in almost two hours.

The Kent skipper, who posted 1,000 first-class runs for the season when reaching seven, hit eight fours in his stay before steering a lifting leg-cutter from Paul Rofe to the diving David Sales at second slip.

The two right handers both reached their 50s with two deliveries of the 25th over of the day, Key reaching the landmark first from 70 balls and with eight fours then Fulton from 16 more deliveries and one fewer boundaries.

The visitors rarely beat the bat during the first session and spawned just one half chance when Tom Huggins downed a tough low chance at square leg from a Rob Key pull shot against Steffan Jones.

By Lunch Key (78) and Ed Smith (7) had taken the hosts through to 144 for one after 33 overs.

Earlier, Kent’s England seam bowler Martin Saggers was unable to take his place in the county side despite a near recovery from the knee injury that has sidelined him for six weeks.

The former Durham seamer enjoyed two practice bowling stints earlier this week, but is still regarded too rusty to start.

England Under-19 bowler Simon Cusden took the vacancy, while overseas bat Michael Bevan was left out on favour of Robert Key.

Kent skipper David Fulton duly won the toss and elected to bat in ideal conditions and against the division's basement side.