IN MAY last year Kent’s overseas firebrand of a pace bowler Mohammad Sami was at his fittest and fastest.

In Kent’s championship clash with Northamptonshire the Karachi Express fired in to claim 10 wickets in the match and terrorise the home batsmen.

One home player stood up to Sami that week at Wantage Road, a little known South African on the fringes of the Test squad called Martin van Jaarsveld.

A willowy right-hander with a simple, no-frills approach to batting, van Jaarsveld hit 46 in the first innings and spent five-and-a-quarter hours hitting 114 in a valiant, but ultimately hopeless attempt at a second innings rearguard action.

Though Kent won by 145 runs, coach Simon Willis made a mental note of the complex name and when, a couple of months later, the player’s Test status came into question Willis was first to propose van Jaarsveld a potential Kent recruit.

The rest, as they say, is history but few players can have enjoyed such an amazing introduction to county cricket as van Jaarsveld.

Yet the man from the high veldt farming town of Warmbaths, which even he concedes is famous for nothing, remained incredibly modest.

"It’s always nice to get some runs early season," he understated, almost not wanting to recognise his accomplishments.

"I’ve felt in decent touch crossing over that rope so it was nice to reach the three-figure mark. I just keep it simple and mentally try and play each and every ball on its merits, regardless of who is bowling.

"In some ways it’s a dream debut, but I wanted to put down my stamp in the side and really do well. It is a long season though and hopefully I can continue where I’ve left off here."

Apart from paying credit to coaches Graham Ford and Willis, van Jaarsveld was also quick to mention the contributions of skipper David Fulton.

He too enjoyed a successful week scoring 53 and 75 in the championship match and a game-turning 28 in Sunday’s win over the Foxes.

County supporters will already have noticed how similar the two batsmen look from a distance, their techniques are near identical, but van Jaarsveld believes they are also on the same wavelength mentally.

"We started quite a good combination when we played against Derbyshire in pre-season and straight away we clicked," he said.

"We understand each other’s games almost instinctively and a lot of the time we don’t even call for a run, we just look at each other and go.

"People have said we look pretty much the same, but he’s an old pro and a seasoned campaigner and is a very calming influence on me.

"If we can continue with the success of that partnership at the top of the order, then hopefully, that will spread through the rest of team."

Added to which, Kent will go a long way to improving on last season’s dreadful tally of batting bonus points.

Ed Smith may have departed, but van Jaarsveld has surely arrived.