Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly smashed Kent to a five wicket win over Hampshire in the Royal London One Day Cup – to boost their quarter final hopes.
Former England batsman Denly continued his impressive recent form with a chanceless century, his sixth in the format.
Bell-Drummond added 203 for the first wicket, a highest first wicket stand against Hampshire, and notched his highest score for Kent with an exciting 91.
The pair looked unstoppable and looked on course for a ten wicket annihilation but three wickets in seven balls halted the charge.
Bell-Drummond, who survived a caught behind appeal early on, was the first to finally depart when he picked out Tom Alsop on the boundary rope.
Four balls later Brad Wheal, on his Hampshire 50-over debut, took his second, getting Denly looping one up to Sean Ervine.
Skipper Sam Northeast was then lbw to Ryan McLaren and Darren Stevens was well caught by Mason Crane, Wheal with a third to send a panic through Kent.
A collapse was in motion when Sam Billings pulled tamely to Gareth Berg to put Wheal on a hat-trick but Alex Blake and Will Gidman steered the away side out the storm and to victory with 39 balls to spare.
Earlier Hampshire were stuck in, and despite a solid 38 runs stand to kick-start the innings, they haemorrhaged wickets regularly.
Tom Alsop was the first man to depart as he tickled a delivery outside off stump to be caught behind, he was quickly followed back by opening partner Will Smith who dragged on from outside off stump.
Captain Sean Ervine added a stodgy 21 before attempting to ramp over his shoulder but was caught at extra cover.
Adam Wheater gave the hosts hope with a nicely crafted half century, from 56 deliveries, during a useful 61 run partnership with Liam Dawson.
But in the 31st over both departed in exactly the same way, Coles grabbing his first with Wheater hooking across to Alex Blake.
And Blake was the Punxsutawney Phil to the Groundhog Day when Dawson fell into the same trap three balls later.
From then on it was the Coles show on his former home ground as he yorked Lewis McManus and had Gareth Berg slashing away from his body.
Coles had his fifth when Gareth Andrew chipped to extra cover, and with his final delivery pulled off a remarkable reaction caught and bowled to see off Ryan McLaren – who had quietly scored 43.
It was the second time Coles took six wickets in a List A fixture, finishing this time with six for 56.
Brad Wheal was the last to depart, mind boggled by a slower ball, to give Hampshire a derisory total of 229, which never looked enough once Denly and Bell-Drummond got going.
Kent batsman Joe Denly was delighted at the end of the game: “It was a pretty good performance up until that last half an hour.”
“The bowlers were fantastic and they only got a reasonable total with that short boundary on a good wicket.
“It was a good chase, me and Deebs had a good partnership but that last half an hour was disappointing but it was a comprehensive victory nonetheless.
“Having Matt back in the side is great he is a vital player for us in all formats and he showed his class today.
“He has been a big miss in recent weeks but was great today.
“Matt puts in 100 per cent in every game and you can’t fault his effort. It was nice for him to take the wickets against his old county.”
Denly went on to explain how he felt Bell-Drummond should be playing for England:
“Deebs continues his fine form from the whole season. Hopefully we see more of him but it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets a call-up in the future.
“I see him getting a call-up for England in any form. He has been in fine form in all formats for us.
“He has really come on in white ball cricket this year, his red ball cricket has always been great.
“I hope he gets a call-up in some form soon and I’m sure he won’t mean which.
“He has been playing Lions this past week and scoring big hundreds for them so it can’t be too far away.
“There are a lot of players who have been scoring runs but he must be up there with the next best.
“I would tell him to keep going the same way he has been. He has really matured this year and he just loves scoring runs.
“He is hard to get out and hard to set fields to so he needs to keep doing that.”