Durham pulled off a sensational win in the Metro Bank Cup on Sunday, beating the Kent Spitfires by seven runs in a thriller at Canterbury.

Kent seemed to be cruising to victory after a regal 104 from Harry Finch, but the Spitfires collapsed from 223 for two and finished on 300 for nine, with George Drissell taking four for 38.

Finch’s 91-ball knock included a six and 13 four and he put on 183 for the third wicket with Jack Leaning, who made 81, but Kent then lost six wickets for 71, leaving Colin Ackermann to successfully defend 17 off the final over.

Earlier Ben McKinney hit a superb century as Durham were all out for 307 from exactly 50 overs. McKinney’s 115 came from 116 balls and included three sixes and 13 fours. Bas de Leede was the next highest scorer with 47.

Jaydn Denly had the best figures of Kent’s nine bowlers with three for 15 and Marcus O’Riordan took three for 36. The result keeps Durham in contention for the knock-out stages, but Kent have been eliminated.

Durham won the toss and chose to bowl on a sub-tropical day at The Spitfire Ground, watched by a crowd of 2,487.

Beyers Swanepoel bowled Michael Jones middle stump for 12 but McKinney and Alex Lees responded with a stand of 87 that ended when the latter was lbw to Charlie Stobo for 35.

Matt Parkinson removed Ackermann with his second ball, caught by Jack Leaning for seven but McKinney played with elegance and brutality, offering only the occasional half-chance. He nudged Marcus O’Riordan through midwicket to reach three figures then dumped Parkinson for a six that landed in the Old Dover Road gardens.

He finally went when he was caught by Stobo trying to reverse sweep O’Riordan, who then took two wickets in four balls in the 40th over. He trapped Scott Borthwick lbw for 35 before getting Neil Wagner caught by Joey Evison for one at mid-off.

De Leede and Haydon Mustard quickly wrestled back control. Mustard was on eight when he skied O’Riordan, but a dazzled Grant Stewart couldn’t pick out a ball that landed a foot in front of him and Parkinson’s next over, the 45th, went for 19.

Mustard had made 35 when he was lbw to Jaydn Denly and Stewart then put down a caught and bowled chance when De Leede was on 45, before getting him caught on the boundary by Joey Evison.

Denly then bowled George Drissell for six and had Johnny Bushnell caught by Swanepoel off the final ball of the innings.

Wagner struck early to get O’Riordan caught behind for 11 and although Evison then hit Wagner for three successive fours, he went for 28, caught behind off de Leede, before Finch and Leaning responded with what looked like a match-turning partnership.

Finch reached his hundred by hitting Borthwick back over his head for his first six but he fell four short of his best List A score when he cut Wagner to Ackermann.

When Drissell bowled Leaning and then had Grant Stewart lbw for three nerves began to set in and Swanepoel was lbw to Ackermann.

Denly skied Ackermann next ball and although Jones dropped a simple catch, Denly was lbw to Ackermann’s next delivery.

Parkinson drove Drissell to Jones and the run rate soared, leaving Kent needing 17 from Ackermann’s final over. The first was a dot, Stobo scrambled two off the second and was run out by Bushnell off the third, chasing a second. When Garrett could only mange two off the next two balls, Kent’s fate was sealed….

Durham’s Ben McKinney said: (On his first century for Durham) “It feels good, I would have liked to do it a couple of weeks ago at Worcester but to do it on a lovely ground like this was special. It was a tough start but it was a lovely pitch so it was good to get it done.

“Facing what was nearly a maiden when I was 99 didn’t help, but I think once I’d passed 60, you can sort of coast in a 50-over game and go at five or six an over. I wasn’t nervous until I got to 99!

“Honestly I was praying on a bad ball, I’m not going to lie but it was good to get there. It was an easy paced wicket which was good and it bounced quite a lot which suits me. We were really pleased with the powerplay and obviously it spun a little bit early but it wasn’t too bad. We were really pleased with the wicket and pleased with the score in the end.

“Two of my biggest partnerships were with Lees and Borthwick and they’re two very experienced players and both left-handed, so it helps to have players who have done it for 10 years plus experience around you. They just show you the way and you do it.

“We’re relieved (to win) from where we were because obviously it was a must win game and George Drissell got us right back in it, so to do it the way we did it makes it a whole lot better.”

Kent’s Harry Finch said: “We’ve had a bit of a chat in there and I don’t know what we were after 40 overs but I think you’d take that every time, so yeah, we’re pretty disappointed.

“You could look at it and say could me and Jack have taken it a little bit longer but I think we spoke about this comp, having a platform. Our lower order have been outstanding in this outstanding in this competition, but yeah, it was very disappointing.

“With the change of position for me today I’m definitely someone who prefers batting in the top four so I was jumping at the chance to bat a bit higher up. I managed to take that chance but it’s pretty disappointing because I felt like we had the game won there basically.

“I think it got down to fives at one point. I think credit to them, they adapted quite well and started to bowl spin and it wasn’t easy to play against spin, but we’ll learn and actually we’ve played some pretty good cricket in this comp.

“I’m obviously happy personally but I’m pretty annoyed with those ten overs if I’m perfectly honest. We lost the game there and I think that’s where we need to get better as a group. When you’re on top like that you can’t let them back in and I know it was difficult out there but we collectively have got to be better and we’ve had to be better in this whole comp. 

“We’ve not batted well enough, we have to be honest about that and I think at times we’ve not set the game up well enough and have batted brilliantly at the back end and then today we had the game set up and have not done well enough at the end. Hopefully we’ll get a perfect performance on Wednesday.

“I think you saw today how aggressive I can be and proactive, I think I struck it above 100 the whole innings so I was pleased with my thinking today.

(On getting to 100 with a six) “To be honest I think I bat at my best when I’m not really thinking about my score. They had mid-on up, they know I’m better at sweeping and stuff so they were always going to have that man up and I think I went two in a row, four and six. It was quite cool doing that!”