Martin van Jaarsveld is still waiting for his first championship ton of the season

By Mark Stokes

Paul Farbrace is backing Martin van Jaarsveld to come good with a couple of big scores before the end of the season.

The 37-year-old batsman has still to make a championship century – his top score of 95 came against Derbyshire at Canterbury in May.

But director of cricket Farbrace said: “Jarre’s played magnificently well in the one-day form and with a little bit of the rub of the green there’s a couple of hundreds from him before the season finishes in championship cricket.

"Nobody works harder than he does and no-one is more determined to score runs.

“You know he’s going to score runs for you and he’s going to get a couple of big scores before the end of the season. That’s the way the bloke plays.”

Van Jaarsveld skippered Kent for the Clydesdale Bank 40 victories over The Netherlands and Middlesex - scoring nought in the latter game - and with Rob Key rated only 50/50 because of a wrist injury, may keep the job for the LV= County Championship Division 2 match against Middlesex, which starts Canterbury at noon on Wednesday.

With doubts over Key's fitness, youngster Daniel Bell-Drummond is retained in the squad while all-rounder Azhar Mahmood looks set to continue, meaning there is still no place for Robbie Joseph.

Farbrace explained: “We’re hoping that Azhar might play again. He’s pretty keen to play championship cricket for the rest of the season so if we can have him playing that puts us in a good position in terms of his all-round skill because his stats this year are pretty outstanding in all forms of the game. Since Twenty20 started he does not seem to have put a foot wrong with bat or ball.”

Kent's only other worry is Simon Cook, who picked up a finger injury in the CB 40 win over Middlesex on Tuesday night.