FORMER Hampshire vice-captain Will Kendall is targeting a long-awaited return to top form after one of the best innings of his life.

Kendall rates the unbeaten 31 he made in the county championship win against Durham on Monday as important as any innings of his Hampshire career.

He justified his recall in his first championship appearance since last July, when he was dropped after five years as an ever present, by helping Dimitri Mascarenhas rescue Hampshire from a perilous 26-5 to give Shane Warne a winning start to his captaincy career at the Rose Bowl.

Kendall has had a bad time of it since Warne's last season with Hampshire in 2000, when the county were still based at Northlands Road in Southampton.

Since the move to West End three seasons ago he has scored 1,604 championship runs at 24.77 - having scored 2,100 runs at 40.38 in his last two seasons at Northlands Road.

And after responding to a first innings duck by putting on the unbroken match-winning eighth wicket stand of 60 with Mascarenhas, he said: "We have a habit of making things hard for ourselves and it's never easy to bat last at the Rose Bowl so it was certainly a nice one to win.

"It was a really big innings for me.

"When I think of my most memorable innings I tend to remember my double hundred against Sussex at Northlands Road in 1999, which was a real milestone for me but that was in totally different conditions.

"Games at the Rose Bowl are often low-scoring affairs.

"I haven't been the only one who has found runs hard to come by, but when you do get low-scoring games it's more important to eke out runs.

"A hundred at Northlands Road can be worth a 40 or a 60 at the Rose Bowl and this was as important as any innings I've played for Hampshire because of the position of the game and the expectations beforehand.

"In terms of wanting to get off on the right foot, this one really stands out."

Warne praised Kendall for helping to take a previously stuttering Hampshire side across the finishing line on Monday.

He said: "One thing we're trying to strive for this year is consistency and Will's a very, very good player. He showed that against Durham, he's good under pressure, he had a good time the last time I was here and I hope he has another good one this year.

"Sometimes you go through little bad patches but the important thing is how you bounce back from them and this has been a terrific start for him.

"It wasn't easy, Durham bowled well and fought really hard, there were no real half volleys, they bowled a good line and length and fought all the way to the end."