BARELY a month into the season and Kent captain Rob Key saw his seventh bowler pull up lame during Sunday's C&G Trophy tie at Hampshire when Robbie Joseph tweaked a thigh muscle.

But Key took the injury blow on the body, used the rest of his attack imaginatively and managed to conjure a Rose Bowl victory from what easily have become a lost cause.

He said: "We can’t wait for Amjad Khan to come back and give us some impetus with the ball because we are chasing just a few too many in one-day games so far this year and much of that is due to injuries.

"We’ve been lucky in the last couple of years in that the squad have remained fit in general but we seem to be getting more than our fair share of injuries so far this summer.

"When you do have injuries you need youngsters to step up and perform, but sadly the lads on the fringes haven’t shown sufficient form for us to give them an opportunity and we really need them to start performing quickly."