Joe Cracknell hit 88 as Middlesex coasted to a five-wicket win over the Kent Spitfires in the Metro Bank Cup at Beckenham.

Cracknell blitzed the Spitfires with an 82-ball innings included two sixes and ten fours and Robbie White chipped in with 50 as the visitors eased home with 8.4 overs to spare, finishing on 206 for five.

Earlier Kent were bowled out for 204 in 44.4 overs, with Josh de Caires, Henry Brookes and Nathan Fernandes all taking two wickets.

Marcus O’Riordan was Kent’s top scorer with 58, but when he was gone they struggled to put any meaningful partnerships together until Hamid Qadri and Matt Parkinson nudged them over the 200 mark.

Kent chose to bat but lost Beyers Swanepoel in the second over, caught behind off Ishaan Kaushal for just two.

Although O’Riordan clouted 20 off the fourth over from Kaushal he was the only Kent batter to score freely.

De Caires had Joey Evison lbw for 14 with his second delivery and O’Riordan went in the next over, trapped in front by Luke Hollman trying to reverse sweep.

Jaydn Denly tried to slog sweep De Caires and was caught by Cracknell for 10 and Ethan Bamber had Harry Finch lbw for 23.

Charlie Stobo had made just two when he tried to charge Fernandes and was stumped by Jack Davies and Fernandes then got Jack Leaning for 28 after a sharp diving catch by Sam Robson. Kent’s last realistic hope of a par score went when Grant Stewart edged Henry Brookes behind for 11.

Brookes’ next delivery hit Parkinson on the helmet, but after a six-minute delay he was ruled fit to continue. His stand of 40 with Qadri at least gave Kent something to defend, but when the latter went for 25, caught by Fernandes off Brookes, there were still 5.5 overs remaining and as Nathan Gilchrist was run out by a direct hit from de Caires three balls later, Parkinson was stranded on 17 not out.

Aside from an early blip when Stewart took two quick wickets, the chase was devoid of any serious drama.

Middlesex’s openers had raced to 25 without loss in the third over when Stewart had Fernandes caught by Stobo at first slip for eight.

In Stewart’s next over Stobo took another slip catch to remove Sam Robson for three but Cracknell responded with an innings of control and aggression that took the game away from the home side. He looked set for a century, only to fall 12 short when he lofted Parkinson to Swanepoel at long off, but by then Middlesex only needed another 71 for victory.

Jack Davies didn’t hang around, cracking 35 before he cut Jaydn Denly to O’Riordan and although Parkinson had White caught behind, a convincing win was sealed when Mark Stoneman drove Parkinson for four in the 32nd over.

Middlesex’s Joe Cracknell said: “We knew that we needed to carry on building after the previous three games, especially from last week’s win and if we executed where we wanted to bowl and executed our options with the bat we knew that we could put in a performance like that.

“We had a little chat before we went off (at halfway) and we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy chase. They got 200 because they had a few cameos and a few starts so that’s what we wanted to try and avoid. We wanted to have one guy or two guys who saw us through to the end and unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that and nor was Robbie, but I think that partnership was crucial in breaking the back of a chase that could have been tricky if we’d lost a few more wickets.

“We’re always encouraged to be positive but it’s about having that nous and that precision between being positive and reckless, which sometimes I may skirt the boundaries but actually it’s really important to try and throw the first punch and put the opposition bowlers on the back foot to start with.

“It’s been a strange couple of months. I haven’t maybe performed as I would have liked personally but it’s nice to be back and scoring a few runs again. I think I personally feel like I have more control with how I think and how I read the game now, whereas you may be a bit naive when you start your career and you have that complete freedom. It’s taken a bit of learning and a few mistakes along he way but I fell a lot calmer and a lot more controlled than maybe I was this time last year or earlier in the season.

“We’re under no illusion, we can always improve but fundamentally it is nice to win a couple of games and we still need to keep improving our skills and our execution. We can still be better with bat and ball and in the field, so we need to keep getting better and keep stringing some performances together to keep this winning streak going.”

Kent’s Mark Dekker said: “I think if you back to the wicket we spoke to the ground (staff) and spoke about leaving a bit more thatch on it to hold it together because it was the same wicket over four days and we took that off it’s turned out to be an absolute belter.

“In terms of did we underclub, absolutely. I think we’ve got to own those moments, you know 210 on that wicket, we’re underclubbing by at least 100. The guys recognise that and it’s human nature to want to make those excuses but we can’t, we’ve got to have a good look and say ok why did we underclub, where can we find those extra runs. Is it execution? Is it management of the game? I honestly think the blokes are honest enough and professional enough to address it. Where it needs to be owned, we’ll own it.

“We were 70 odd for one off the powerplay and between overs 10 and 20 we lose four wickets. We lost them to spin and I think we had three guys who lot their wickets to spin. Could we have bee a little more game smart there? I kno there’s this theory about ‘do it your way’ but I think we’ve also got to judge the wicket. Do you need to be sweeping early, can you own downtown.

“Cracknell showed that beautifully against Parkinson, he earned the right to go square on and we’ll have those conversations. We’ll have a debate and start finding the answers we’re looking for.

“I honestly think our bowlers have been absolutely brilliant, they stepped up to the plate every time we’ve played and they have not let us down. What we were asking them to do, try and win the game with only 200 on the board, I can’t say a bad word about them. Parky’s got to try and bowl with only a hundred runs to play with and that’s difficult for a spinner. I cannot fault them and I won’t fault them. We’ve got to put more runs on the board, it’s as simple as that.

“You have this idea that I’d like to win five games early and then it’s in the bag, but sport’s not like that.”…