Kent Spitfires have travelled to the Isle of Wight knowing that victory may not be enough to send them into the knockout stages of the One Day Cup. 

Going into Tuesday’s final game of the group stages, Simon Cook’s side have travelled to face second placed Hampshire, who could still overhaul Leicestershire, for a home Semi-Final themselves with a win. 

Speaking to KSN after just arriving at the Newclose Cricket Club on the island, Cook said, “We know we’ve got to win a game of cricket which is going to be a tough challenge if we want to get through. Hampshire are a good side and we had to play really well last year to beat them in the Semi-Final at Southampton.

“We come here with good confidence after beating Essex, a good method of play and belief in how we are going to win! It’s all about turning up on the day and getting the job done.” 

There has been some misunderstanding over the table as some show Kent in third over Lancashire by having won more games, and other show positions reversed and “decided” on net run-rate. Cook confirmed that sadly the latter is correct.

“Run rate will be the first thing to decide things which makes it tougher still. In some ways it may help that Hampshire have already qualified and we’d like them to take their foot off the gas a little bit, but they must have played some pretty good cricket to be where they are and with that, they’ll have good confidence.

“I really don’t think it matters as they’ll still be out to play a really good game and get a home semi-final and go one stage better than they did last year.” 

Looking back on Sunday’s win over Essex where the show was stolen by Jack Leaning with a magnificent hundred and by young Jaydn Denley’s all-round performance., and all that with his Uncle Joe back to skipper the side.

“Having Joe back was great , having him at the helm last year showed how good he is with his captaincy. It’s such a shame that he’s had to miss so much of the campaign as he has so much to offer with the bat, his all-round package is very important to us.

“Jaydn has shown glimpses of what he can do in a lot of the games, certainly with the ball against Surrey and it was great to see him put an all-round performance in with a great catch; he started the innings well with a run out and batted very maturely. Brilliant for him to have a great all-round game to just give him that solidity that he belongs in this environment. It was very good to see them both playing in the same team but also both making meaningful contributions.” 

“Jack’s hundred was great and it’s been coming for a while,” the coach continued.

“He’s got some sixties and some seventies and has looked in really good nick and has had some unlucky decisions go against him! How he managed the innings was outstanding, he got off to a decent start and then when we lost a couple of wickets, he managed his way through the back end of the innings with the tail, taking twenty-eight/thirty runs off the last two overs was brilliant. He has a sixty-run partnership with Jas Singh which was another young player doing brilliantly.” 

Cook was talking to us from the ground and then when asked what sort of wicket to expect, the coach admitted, “We honestly don’t know! We’ve been told that it got wet a few days ago, and there was some concern that we might not be able to play the fixture here. That’s the main reason we’ve arrived earlier that we probably would have done normally to have a look.” 

Cook then confirmed that the squad that beat Essex has travelled and will be joined by Daniel Bell-Drummond who is making the trip from Cardiff after the London Spirits Hundred game with Welsh Fire on Sunday.