Rob Key hailed the third double hundred of his career against Durham this week as one of his best ever innings.

The Kent skipper transformed his season after a string of low scores with 261, leading his side’s recovery from 10-2 to make 424.

He was last man out, bowled leg stump by Ben Harmison after facing only 270 balls and hitting 38 fours and three sixes.

It was Key’s first double ton at Canterbury, only nine short of his career best 270 made against Glamorgan 10 months ago and just 14 off Matthew Walker’s ground record score of 275 made against Somerset in 1996.

It was the 10th highest ever total made by a Kent player.

Key said: "The 87 against Warwickshire on Sunday was massive for me. I spent the whole winter working on the trigger movements in my batting.

"I believe you try anything you can to get better but sometimes it doesn’t work.

"It hasn’t done it for me, so I went back to how I played before and in the last two games it has come out well."

He added: "This is probably one of my better ones, because people like Steve Harmison were playing.

"They have lost a couple of their main bowlers but it’s nice to do it in Division 1."