Kent bowler Mitch Claydon says the side have been “unlucky” after taking a defeat and a draw from their opening two games of the season.

After a 125-run defeat at Worcestershire in their opening game, Kent played out a rain-affected draw at home to Leicestershire last week, where even an enterprising declaration by captain Rob Key could not help them secure an unlikely victory.

And seamer Claydon, 31, who signed at the club on a permanent deal from Durham in the off-season having spent much of 2013 on-loan at Canterbury, feels that the luck has not quite gone Kent’s way so far in the new campaign.

“I think we’ve been unlucky”, he said at the close of play on the final day against Leicestershire.

“If you look at those little “one-percenters” – we lost the toss at Worcester, which was key, and in that first innings, if we could have batted and got a lead, I think it would have been a different result there, where it suited their bowlers a little bit more.

“We won the toss here [against Leicestershire] and we chose to bowl under lights when it was overcast. Then it rains and we don’t get on, and we find ourselves bowling [the next morning] and it’s 20 degrees and a lovely day. It’s just little things like that.”

Australian-born Claydon is also confident that though the team is yet to pick up a win in 2014, they are close to where they need to be to be successful.

“There are positives to be taken out of it”, he said.

“I think as a bowling unit we’re bowling pretty well, and we’re creating chances. Dropped chances are going to happen in a game, and maybe little things haven’t gone our way, but we’re not far away.”

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