Brendan Nash admitted he was surprised by the fluid nature of his century which helped pave the way for Kent’s big win over Surrey this week.

The 36-year-old former West Indies international scored 126 and shared a first-innings stand of 197 with Rob Key.

Unusually for him, Nash’s knock came from just 157 balls and took just two-and-a-half hours, twice the pace of his skipper’s innings, also of 126.

Nash admitted: “It surprised me, too. Every once in a while you have a day when you see the ball well, you’re well-prepared, things just go your way and you run with it.”

The Australian-born Kolpak star cracked 19 fours and a six and revealed: “Keysey was encouraging me. I said to him at one point ‘I’m playing too many shots’ and he just told me ‘you’re playing the ball well and getting your foot to the pitch and making good decisions, just keep going’.

“I was a bit disappointed to get out when I did but overall I was pretty happy to help keep the game going forward for the team.

“Keysey and myself have put on some good partnerships over the years and he’s a great leader, player and batsman. We’re lucky enough to know how to get the best out of each other in the middle.

“It’s good we can both feed off each other and put on those partnerships."

He added: "It feels good to get that first win. It’s been coming, with the work we’ve put in and the feeling in the group. We won’t get carried away, it’s a win but we haven’t set the world alight.

“Confidence levels are high but we won’t let them get ridiculously so. We’ve got a taste of (victory), now we know what’s needed to do it.”

Kent will seek to make it back-to-back victories when they visit Derbyshire on Sunday, a ground where defeat in 2012 helped ensure they missed out on promotion by just 24 points.

“That game could have been a turning point,” said Nash.

“We beat them quite convincingly at home and they ended up going up, so if we could have won that one, maybe it could have been us who ended up going up.

“It’s a sore point for us, so maybe that’s why it sticks in the mind.”