Michael Vaughan chose the world’s oldest cricket festival to launch his bid to force his way back into the England team for the winter tours of India and West Indies by sheer weight of runs, but found himself completely upstaged by Martin van Jaarsveld, the former South Africa batsman.

Van Jaarsveld, who will be eligible to play for England himself in two years’ time, was in a class of his own after Kent, put in on a pitch with pace and bounce, slumped to 108 for six, scoring 107 off 139 balls with two sixes and 15 fours before he was last out, lbw to Anthony McGrath.

Joe Denly, who rode his luck to make 50, was the only other Kent batsman to reach double figures against a Yorkshire attack that was steady rather than spectacular after Deon Kruis had exploited the conditions well to remove Rob Key and Neil Dexter in his first seven overs.

Key was caught behind pushing forward to a ball that lifted and left him and Dexter got another good one, which he could only edge to second slip. Denly, meanwhile, was dropped at second slip on one but continued to play his shots with little regard to the conditions.

He had just reached his fifty off 65 balls with seven fours when he fell leg before to a ball from Darren Gough that nipped back, leaving Van Jaarsveld to show what could be achieved with patience and application. His best support came from James Tredwell, who made only nine off 51 balls, but helped to add 57 for the seventh wicket.

There were still 32 overs left when Yorkshire went in and Vaughan was off the mark sixth ball with a legside single off Robbie Joseph. He went on to pick up two fours, one gloved down the legside off Amjad Khan just out of reach of the diving Geraint Jones, the other eased to third man off Joseph.

Then, having made 10 off 19 balls, he drove ambitiously at a wide ball from Joseph and trudged off knowing that he will have to play a lot better in the next few weeks if he is to persuade the England selectors to recall him.

Andrew Gale soon followed, pinned leg before by Joseph, but Jacques Rudolph and McGrath showed what a good toss it had been for Yorkshire to win by putting on an unbroken 48 in the best batting conditions of the day.

Scoreboard

Kent: First Innings
J L Denly lbw b Gough 50
*R W T Key c Brophy b Kruis 7
N J Dexter c McGrath b Kruis 4
M van Jaarsveld lbw b McGrath 107
D I Stevens c McGrath b Naved 1
†G O Jones c Brophy b Hoggard 8
R McLaren run out 0
J C Tredwell lbw b Gough 9
A Khan c Vaughan b Hoggard 5
R H Joseph c Gale b Rashid 7
M J Saggers not out 4
Extras (lb 16, w 1, nb 8) 25
Total (63.1 overs) 227

Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-36, 3-78, 4-79, 5-106, 6-108, 7-165, 8-193, 9-223.

Bowling: Hoggard 18-4-48-2; Kruis 15-4-39-2; Gough 13-2-34-2; Naved 9-0-53-1; Rashid 4-0-27-1; McGrath 4.1-0-10-1.

Yorkshire: First Innings
A W Gale lbw b Joseph 10
M P Vaughan c Jones b Joseph 10
A McGrath not out 23
J A Rudolph not out 28
Extras (lb 2, w 2, nb 10) 14
Total (2 wkts, 32 overs) 85

A Lyth, †G L Brophy, A U Rashid, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, *D Gough, M J Hoggard and G J Kruis to bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-37.

Bowling: Joseph 10-0-26-2; Khan 6-2-17-0; Saggers 8-2-22-0; McLaren 8-2-18-0.

Umpires: J H Evans and R T Robinson.

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