Former Kent skipper Rob Key started the campaign with an unbeaten century as their season opener against Leicestershire ended in a draw.

Kent reached 213-2 in their second innings before the teams shook hands on a draw on Saturday that left both sides with nine points from their LV= County Championship Division 2 encounter at Grace Road.

The hosts had been bowled out for 495 in reply to Kent’s opening innings of 406. Kent declared in their second innings on the final day with Key on 104 after facing 199 balls.

Key (pictured) had missed out on a big score in the first innings when he was out for 41 after top edging a bouncer from Robbie Williams to Shiv Thakor.

But there were half-centuries for Brendan Nash (50), Geraint Jones (67) and Matthew Coles (59) as Leicestershire were made to suffer after putting Kent into bat.

The hosts weren’t helped by the loss of their most experienced bowler, Matthew Hoggard, who went off injured after a fruitless five-over spell.

Leicestershire fought back on day two, with the hosts ending the day on 250-5 still 156 runs behind.

Darren Stevens claimed the vital wicket to end a stand of 95 between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Matt Boyce, who was unbeaten on 53 at the close.

Callum Haggett, on his championship debut for Kent, had figures of 3-57.

The runs kept coming on day three, as Thakor and Boyce both scored centuries to put Leicestershire beyond Kent’s score before rain and bad light halted proceedings early. The pair shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 181.

Leicestershire finished the third day on 452-7. Boyce was dismissed, trapped lbw by Nash, but Thakor remained on 105.

Leicestershire resumed on the final day and were eventually dismissed for 495, with a lead of 89 runs.

There wasn’t enough time for either side to engineer a win but at least Kent had another 62 overs at the crease, with Nash adding 62 to his earlier fifty and Key is now just three tons away from 50 first-class hundreds.