Kent picked up a much-needed 48-run win over Surrey at the Oval to keep their T20 hopes alive.
Having posted 136-8 from their 20 overs, the Spitfires were superb in the field, bowling out the hosts for just 88 runs, Surrey’s lowest ever T20 total. This was all in front of a season competition-high crowd, just short of 15,000 at the Oval on a warm summer’s evening, plenty of them Kent fans, with beer snakes aplenty, and come the end of the match, even a streaker! Luckily, he was fully clothed!
Kent had made three changes to the side beaten convincingly at Sussex last Friday, Brendan Nash, Matt Coles and James Tredwell all out, replaced by Azhar Mahmood, Alex Blake and Adam Riley. Nash was missing after the birth of his second child; while Tredwell was absent on international duty; called up by England for their two final ODIs against Australia.
Surrey included some big names in their XI – England stars Kevin Pietersen and Steven Davies opening the batting, with Chris Tremlett and Dirk Nannes the stand-out names in their bowling attack. The Surrey side lined up in understandably difficult conditions – just a day after the funeral of Tom Maynard, a team-mate of theirs when they faced Kent just a few weeks ago.
The home side won the toss and Kent were sent in to bat first, the two Sams – Northeast and Billings – opening the batting.
Northeast started well, putting away two boundaries off Matthew Spriegel in the second over as Surrey opened with spin from both ends, before departing to the last ball of the all-rounder’s first over, caught excellently by a diving Kevin Pietersen. He went for 12, the first wicket falling with 15 on the board. Skipper Rob Key came in at three and he and Billings moved the score on to 39 before the young opener went to a short and wide, rising delivery from England bowler Tremlett, feathering a catch through to Davies.
Darren Stevens joined his skipper at the crease as Kent reached the end of their six powerplay overs with the score on 41-2. He was next man out (6) as he attempted to sweep off Murali Kartik; the ball flying high into the sky and the grateful hands of Pietersen, moving round from point.
Azhar Mahmood, yet to hit top form in his side’s T20 campaign so far this year, was in at number five, and made just 7 before being stumped by Davies off the bowling of Zafar Ansari.
Alex Blake came to the crease, making just his second appearance of the season, and hit his first boundary with a wonderful reverse sweep off Ansari.
Key played some nice shots in his joint-top scoring 35, finding the boundary with a cover drive, a two shots back down the ground past the bowler for four, but he was the fifth man out, as Pietersen took his third catch of the innings. The ball was driven straight to him off the bowling of Ansari, with Kent at 82-5 with seven overs remaining.
Blake swept and reversed swept particularly well throughout his innings, and hit the only six of the match – sweeping Ansari over square-leg. Dirk Nannes caught the ball in the deep but had a foot over the boundary rope, leaving the umpire no choice but to award the maximum.
Blake continued to keep runs coming for himself, as he and Geraint Jones took the Spitfires to 122-5, before Jones went, attempting an ill-advised ‘dilscoop-esque’ shot, and having his middle stump suitably removed by Tremlett for 13.
Youngster Blake was on his way back to the dugout next over, caught in the deep by Jason Roy off the bowling of Nannes for 35 from just 26 deliveries.
Adam Ball fell in almost identical fashion next ball, top-edging a pull of Nannes, Rory Burns completing the catch this time.
Simon Cook kept out the hat-trick ball, and he and Mark Davies saw through the rest of the Spitfires innings, leaving them 136-8 after their allotted 20 overs.
It seemed that it may have been a below-par score for the Spitfires, and as Kevin Pietersen hit Mark Davies for four to fine leg with the fourth ball of the first over, Surrey would have been confident of chasing the 137 needed to win.
He was out with the final ball of the over however, a clearly-delighted Davies getting one to nip back a bit and trap him lbw for 7.
Azhar Mahmood opened the bowling alongside Davies and picked up the second wicket in his first over – Jason Roy moving across and seeing the bail flicked from his leg stump by Mahmood’s third delivery, the England Lions batsman departing for a golden duck.
By the end of the third over, Kent had their hosts 3-down, Rory Burns chipping a Davies delivery to a diving Stevens at midwicket, leaving Surrey 18-3.
This soon became 18-4, Mahmood striking for the second time as Steven Davies attempted a cut, but, having not been given enough room, edged behind, with Geraint Jones taking an excellent diving catch.
Re-building work was needed for Surrey, and was provided in part by Zander de Bruyn and Zafar Ansari, who put on 45 for the next wicket.
Darren Stevens got the breakthrough for the Spitfires, bowling Ansari for 25, the hosts still needing 74 to win in eight overs with five wickets left in hand.
Stevens remained in wicket-taking mood as he ran Murali Kartik out in the next over, confusion between the two batsmen leaving Kartik well short of his crease, heading back to the dugout without facing a ball.
Adam Riley, in for Tredwell, had bowled excellently in his spell up to this point and was rewarded with a wicket as de Bruyn was stumped by Jones for 18. He picked up his second with the last ball of the same over, trapping Matthew Spriegel plum lbw for 1, leaving the hosts 71-8.
Gareth Batty and Chris Tremlett were able to hold off Kent’s inevitable victory for a short while as Riley finished off a superb spell in favourable conditions with figures of 2-15, before Mahmood picked up his third wicket, Tremlett bowled for 5.
Adam Ball was given his first bowl of the game in the 18th over and picked up the final wicket, Batty stumped for 10, leaving his side bowled out for just 88, completing a 48-run victory.
Speaking to KSN at the close of play, man-of-the-match Blake said: “It’s only my second game so it’s nice to first of all get a go and secondly make a contribution to a winning game. I had to play myself in a little bit, and then I got my reward towards the end.
“I thought we were probably 15 or 20 runs short on that wicket but the bowlers did a great job – we took early wickets – and from there, Surrey were always behind the eight-ball.”
Kent remain in with a slight chance of qualification out of the South Group of the FLT20 competition, while Surrey’s defeat, their sixth consecutive in this form of the game, means that reaching the quarter finals is now impossible for them.
Surrey won the toss and elected to bowl.
Surrey side: Pietersen, Davies, Roy, Burns, de Bruyn, Ansari, Kartik, Spriegel, Batty, Tremlett, Nannes.
Kent side: Northeast, Billings, Key, Stevens, Mahmood, Blake, Jones, Ball, Cook, Davies, Riley.
Umpires: N Cook & T Jesty.
Result: Kent Spitfires 136 for 8 (20 overs), Surrey 88 all out (17.3 overs). Kent Spitfires won by 48 runs.