SOMERSET'S Vitality County Championship Division One opening match ended in a draw against Kent at the Spitfire Ground.

Speaking after the stalemate, Lewis Gregory said he was pleased with the effort shown, but wants to to put more pressure on the squad as the season progresses.

“All in all it was a pretty decent three days. We’d have liked to have forced the issue today and it didn’t quite work out that way, but the lads can take a lot of confidence from this game going forward," he said.

“For the first game of the season there were a few nerves flying around so for most of the batters to get time in the middle was really encouraging.”

When asked about the new Kookaburra ball on early season wickets, Gregory said it goes soft very quickly.

“Can I swear? It is what it is. They’re trying to bring it in for whatever reason," he said.

"It goes soft very quickly and there’s no seam on the ball so it becomes very hard work, but the guys have got to find a way.

"That’s something I’ve put on to them all year. When you’re on wickets that don’t really assist it’s finding a way to do a job."

He added that: “I thought we were fantastic in the first innings, to bowl them out for 280 on a pretty docile wicket with a Kookaburra was a really good effort and with two early poles today we were hoping for the same.”

There was plenty of chat off the pitch about the omission of Shoaib Bashir from the match day squad for this fixture.

Gregory said, it would have been nice to have him in the side, but it perhaps wouldn't of made much of a difference in terms of taking 20 wickets.

“Look, we thought there was obviously a hell of a lot of moisture in the surface with the amount of rain they’ve had and with it being a three day game we didn’t think it would get to that, but yes, he would have been handy today," he said.

"We made a decision to go with an extra seamer and I’m not sure it would have made a huge amount of difference, but yes, it would have been nice to have him.

“If it’s more of a full game at the Oval, which, with the weather it looks like it we’ll be, I imagine we’ll see him in the side.”

Somerset are back in action this week away from home against Surrey at the Oval. The match gets underway on Friday, April 12 at 11am.

Surrey's season opener away at Lancashire ended in a draw after no play was possible on the final day at Emirates Old Trafford.

However, bowlers Cameron Steel and Dan Lawrence were in strong form taking five and four wickets respectively.