Mitch Claydon says Kent must put the ‘frustration’ of their defeat on an ‘outrageous’ pitch at Chelmsford behind them as quickly as possible.

Kent allowed the prospect of victory at Chelmsford to slip away, suffering defeat in little over seven sessions at Essex with the Australian-born paceman admitting: “It was frustrating – we had chances to win the game.”

The 32-year-old revealed the visitors knew the likely outcome when they first saw the green track on Sunday morning, adding: “It was a very interesting pitch, when we saw it we knew it probably wouldn’t last three days but for 33 wickets to fall in two days is outrageous, though they have got away with it.

“If that’s how they’re preparing pitches then there will be a lot of results there this season.”

Claydon claimed: “We were right in the game pretty much the whole game. We were always going to get chances with a pitch like that and them playing attacking shots but you have got to take them when they arrive.

“We out-bowled them massively in the first innings – we put down catches but we really could have had them 50 or 60 all out.

“They bowled well with the new ball and bowled line and length more consistently in the second innings and that was enough for them in the end.

“I didn’t bowl that well in the first innings but I got a couple on Monday night and another first thing on Tuesday morning.

“We were right in the game and if we could have got James Foster at that stage then things might have been different,”

He added: “We have to move on and put it behind us, it’s only the first game of the season.

“We’ll take a couple of days to regroup and then get back to training and making sure we are ready for Lancashire on Sunday.”

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