Kent Spitfires will be hoping to get their NatWest T20 Blast campaign back on track as they take on Gloucestershire in Bristol tonight.
After returning to winning ways in four-day cricket with their excellent LV= County Championship victory inside three days against Derbyshire at Canterbury this week, the squad will be hoping that they can carry that momentum into the shortest form of the game.
After a bright and promising start to the T20 Blast this year, Kent have struggled a little more in recent weeks, with defeats at home to Essex and Sussex sandwiched with the disappointing final-ball tie against Glamorgan in Cardiff.
The Spitfires currently find themselves in 5th place in the nine-team South Group; a division where the top seven sides can still realistically harbour hopes of a quarter finals appearance.
A 14-man squad has been named for the visit to Gloucestershire, with Head Coach Jimmy Adams keeping faith in the same group named for the 35-run loss to Sussex last week.
That means that the majority of the four-day side who beat Derbyshire are included, bar for the likes of Brendan Nash, Ben Harmison and Robbie Joseph, while the likes of Alex Blake, Mitch Claydon and David Griffiths come back into the reckoning.
Speaking about the squad he had selected, Adams admitted that it had been a “disappointing loss last Friday”.
He went on to say that it was “very heartening to see the way the guys responded in the red ball game during the week.
“We know we can produce that form across all formats”, he said, “and aim to do it Friday night in Bristol.”
The Spitfires completed an impressive 21-run victory when the sides met in the competition earlier in the season; the win allowing Kent to maintain their 100% record against Gloucestershire in all six completed T20 matches between the sides.
Alex Blake top-scored for the Spitfires with a 30-ball 41 that night as Kent posted a slightly under-par total of 136-7, while Adam Riley picked up his career-best T20 figures of 4-22 as the hosts then restricted Gloucestershire to just 115-9 from their 20-over allocation.
Gloucestershire come into this game off the back of a match that ended with no result against Middlesex at Lord’s last night.
Having won the toss and elected to bat, tonight’s hosts had reached a paltry 105-6 from their 20 overs; Benny Howell top-scoring with 39 from 48 balls, before the rain came during the innings break, meaning Middlesex were never able to get their reply underway.
The game between Gloucestershire and Kent Spitfires at The Bristol County Ground starts at 5.30pm this evening.
Gloucestershire squad: TBA
Kent squad: Bell-Drummond, Key*, Northeast, Blake, Stevens, Billings, Ball, Tredwell, Claydon, Bollinger, Griffiths, Cowdrey, Riley, Hartley