Kent head coach Matt Walker said Matt Henry’s performance against Durham was “fast bowling at its very best”.

New Zealand fast bowler Henry took a career best of 12-73 in the match to inspire Kent to a nine wicket win at Chester-le-Street in the Specsavers County Championship Division 2.

He also took career best figures of 7-45 in Durham’s second innings. The 26-year-old has now claimed 19 victims in his opening two matches for the club.

Walker said: “Matt Henry was exceptional. A good a performance as I have seen and it was fast bowling at it’s very best. Length was impeccable and he was just relentless in his areas and was just too good.

“It was great viewing and he got his rewards by doing simple things very well over and over again.

“He was a class apart but it’s a team performance in terms of the bowling. You needed people up the other end as well to play their part and they did. It’s really pleasing with the ball.”

In Durham’s first game of the season, they were bowled out for 91 in the first innings after an uncontested toss.

Kent posted 169 after a maiden half-century for Heino Kuhn. The hosts could only reach 170 in their second innings leaving Kuhn and Daniel Bell-Drummond to chase down the runs for the away side.

Walker said: “There was just enough in it for the bowler throughout the game. If you got your head down and applied yourself there was definitely runs to be scored.

"Durham were similar to us last week, perhaps a bit undercooked and struggled with pre-season weather. Bowling first gave us a bit of an advantage here and we reaped the benefits.

“When you lose the first game of the season it is a bit of a kick in the teeth as you work so hard in pre-season to try and get it right. This was an important week and we wanted to bounce back quickly.”

Kent now have 22 points after two games in the County Championship and Walker hopes his side can push on from here.

Walker added: “We have high calibre players in this league and it’s not easy at this time of year as it does favour the bowlers.

“People just need a bit of time in the middle and they haven’t had as much time as we would have liked. That is a fact and it’s not making excuses but batters want time in the middle.

We need to scrap our way to finding runs in the middle.

“Heino batted well in both innings and Sean first innings and Daniel in the second were excellent.

“There were little glimpses and we didn’t quite get a partnership that really put us in a strong position. Every time we looked like we had got ourselves in a strong position we lost a wicket.

“There’s still plenty to work on and improvements to be had. I thought our slip catching was magnificent in these last two games. There are some really positive signs and hopefully we can take this on to the Pakistan game and further ahead.”