SOUTH AFRICA’S loss would appear to be Kent’s gain as the former Proteas batsman wrote his name into the county record books in Canterbury on Friday.

Having scored 118 in the first innings, van Jaarsveld followed it with an 193-ball innings of 111 to become the first player in the county’s history to score two centuries in a championship match on club debut.

The right-hander from the high veldt farming town of Warmbaths took his time in the middle to almost eight hours and, in doing so, gave Kent the advantage after three days of this fascinating four-day game.

Going into the fourth and final day Kent had reached 308 for six, for an overall lead of 346 after snatching a slender first innings advantage of 38 earlier in the day.

Batting second time around on a pitch showing signs of wear and variable bounce, Kent again lost Rob Key (21) early in the innings but recovered courtesy of a battling second wicket stand between van Jaarsveld and David Fulton that added 155 in 53 overs.

The Kent skipper contributed a patient 75 in a shade over four hours but perished as soon as he tried to accelerate when yorking himself to a Nick Warren slower ball.

A tired van Jaarsveld went soon after, slicing a drive to backward point, exposing the Kent middle order to the troublesome pitch.

With Warwickshire somewhat on the defensive, Kent found runs hard to come by and shot-making even harder.

Darren Stevens went without scoring after electing not to play a shot to an Ashley Giles arm-ball the shaved off stump, then Geraint Jones (3) completed a disappointing match with gloves and bat by edging to slip when driving.

Kent lost their fifth wicket for 71 runs when Matt Dennington was given leg before when padding away a Giles delivery that appeared to pitch outside leg stump, leaving Fulton’s hopes of declaring late in the day in tatters.

Instead, he allowed Matthew Walker to bat out the remainder of the day in sidling to what may be a crucial 54 from 86 balls to edge Kent’s lead up toward 350.

With rain forecast for Saturday the weather may yet be the final winner in this game between last season’s top two sides, either way, they have at least served up an enthralling three days of entertainment in this Kent’s championship opener for 2005.

Earlier in the day, Amjad Khan ran through the Warwickshire tail to take the last three wickets and finish with six for 73 to help restrict the visitors to 309 all out.