KENT'S triumphant Twenty20 Cup skipper Rob Key revealed he felt a bit of a fool frolicking around the Edgbaston outfield on Saturday evening celebrating his side's four-wicket win over the Gloucestershire Gladiators.

Beaming from ear to ear after a pressure-packed final, Key might have preferred a quiet pint and a cigarette to wind down, but he rightly played his part in the champagne celebrations afterwards.

Having led the transformation over a side that three years ago were unable to hit their way out of a paper bag, let alone qualify for the knock-out stages, Key led the plaudits to the team, simply forgetting to mention his own vital role in the metamorphosis of the squad he inherited from David Fulton.

Key said: "A couple of years ago I never even thought we would get to the quarter-finals let alone win it, so to come here for the first time and come away with the trophy is special.

"To be honest I feel a bit stupid at times, dancing around and carrying on too much, but I am pretty happy inside.

"At the start and the mid-point of our reply I was very confident, but at the end there I thought we had absolutely no chance. I wasn't watching at the end, I was inside the dressing room kicking things up in the air, and only came out when I thought we needed two to win.

"Darren Stevens is a good clean hitter and was a good man to have out in the middle at that stage."

Though Kent once had a reputation for blowing up under the pressure of the run chase, Key believes that ghost has finally been exorcised after two victories in Birmingham when chasing down totals.

He added: "I didn't want to win the toss because I had no idea what the wicket was going to do under the lights and no real idea if it would skid on and be any better than it was in the semi, but we just wanted to stick with the winning formula.

"I felt if we had chased successfully against a Sussex side that included the two Mushtaqs, Rana Naved and James Kirtley, then we had a good chance of doing so again against Gloucestershire.

"We're all pretty tired, but I'm sure we will all drink through that."

In the afterglow of victory, Key played particular tribute to two of the newest members of his side, his 21-year-old opening partner Joe Denly and 24-year-old first season signing Ryan McLaren, who were both magnificent on the day.

Key said: "Joe learns things very quickly, that's why he will be a star of the future. That's a mark of why he will be so good."

"As for Ryan, he's just an unbelievable cricketer. You saw him field in the first game, he's a serious player.

"We talk about players having various strings to their bow; this bloke's got more strings than anyone I've ever seen."

A star with the bat in both games, Key led the side with aplomb, but was also mildly embarrassed by his show of petulance after getting out in the final.

With some doubt as to whether the catch carried to Hamish Marshall at mid-wicket, Key loitered on the outfield and then threw his bat toward the dugout before storming into the dressing rooms.

Explaining his actions afterwards, he said: "I wasn't sure (that it carried) but then I got given out. As I was walking off the players, who had a monitor there in the dugout, said that it had bounced.

"All I could think about was KP (Kevin Pietersen) when he turned around in the Test match, but I suppose he's got a bit more clout than me to do that."

And in recognising the help he was received in his first years of captaincy, Key paid tribute to his backroom team.

"There are a lot of people behind the scenes, Graham Ford, Paul Farbrace and Simon Willis who have done a lot of work in the past couple of years but who have also taken a lot of stick," added the Kent captain.

"Also the chairman of cricket Graham Johnson and cricket committee have given us everything we've asked for, we wanted Lasith Malinga and they went out and got him for us, so we had to repay their support."