Hampshire’s Tom Alsop hit an unbeaten century to ensure Kent Spitfires were outgunned with ball and bat in crashing to an emphatic six-wicket defeat in their Royal London One Day Cup south group opener in Canterbury.
Hampshire recovered from a patchy start to their bowling display at a cold, overcast St Lawrence ground and went on to dominate the last two-thirds of the match with opening bat Alsop, on only his 19th List A appearance, seeing his side home with an unbeaten 112 and with 29 balls to spare.
In pursuit of 259 for victory at an asking rate of 5.18 an over, Hampshire made a disastrous start in losing Michael Carberry, the former Kent and England opener, lbw to Wayne Parnell’s second delivery of the game. It also proved to be the first and only maiden of the match.
Matt Coles offered nothing like the same consistency at the Pavilion End though and, after conceding 35 in his first four, wicketless overs, was replaced as Hampshire’s second-wicket partners James Vince and Tom Alsop bolted, adding 112 in 16 overs.
Vince’s 50-ball stay for a majestic 69 ended when he worked across one from Darren Stevens to be sent packing lbw, but Alsop became the game’s fourth half-century maker after facing 61 balls.
Mitch Claydon jagged one down the slope and through the gate to clip Liam Dawson’s leg stump, then the same bowler found the leading edge of Jimmy Adams’s bat for a looping catch to mid-off.
It proved a false dawn under the floodlights however, as Alsop teamed up with Sean Ervine (33*) to add an unbroken 82 for the fifth wicket and ease their side over the win line. Alsop, who hit his first 50-over century against Surrey last year, reached three figures from 125 balls and with a dozen fours.
At the other end of the cricketing age scale, it had been Kent’s veteran all-rounder Stevens who top
scored with 60 to spare his side’s batting blushes after they had threatened to completely waste a promising start.
The all-rounder, who turns 41 on Sunday, hit three sixes and a brace of fours to ensure the hosts posted 258 after being invited to bat first.
Spitfires laid decent foundations through Joe Denly (45) and Daniel Bell Drummond (56), whose first-wicket stand of 94 in 15.2 overs ended when Denly miscued to mid-on against left-arm spinner Dawson.
On a slightly two-paced pitch, Kent’s innings tailed off meekly thereafter with only Stevens providing any form of prolonged resistance. Sean Dickson cut a short one to cover point then, after reaching a 63-ball 50, Bell-Drummond followed suit by flat-batting low to a diving Chris Wood at cover.
Soon after, Wood left the field with a side strain midway through his sixth over, but Kentish wickets continued to fall as Sam Northeast chipped to mid-wicket and Alex Blake played across the line to depart lbw.
Parnell pushed inside the line of a Reece Topley leg-cutter that held its line to trim off stump, then Adam Rouse departed lbw after moving across his stumps to work to leg.
Stevens marched to his 46th List A half-century in his 294th appearance in the format, reaching the milestone from 49 balls with two fours and a brace of sixes, both over long-on.
Coles smeared across one from Dawson to be bowled before Stevens, after another straight six, miscued to extra cover off a leading edge against Topley to go for 60 off 57 balls.
James Tredwell and last man Claydon saw it through to the 50th over before Claydon heaved to mid-wicket to give Topley figures of three for 65. Holland, Dawson and Crane bagged two wickets apiece.
Hampshire captain James Vince was delighted by his side’s comeback with the ball as well as their determined batting display led by century-maker, Alsop.
He said: “After the first 10 to 12 overs we I thought we bowled well, we remembered our plans and kept Kent down to what we thought was a ‘getable’ score. In 50 overs cricket it’s important to take wickets regularly as it’s the best way to stop the flow of runs.”
“We’d talked about that before hand, so it was pleasing we managed to keep chipping away.I was particularly happy with the spinners [Dawson and Crane] and I thought they executed their skills really well.
“With bad weather about this isn’t the easiest place to come and win, so my partnership up front with Tommy kick-started our innings and set up the chase. For Tommy to bat through was an excellent effort and I’m really pleased for him, We needed someone to grab the innings by the throat. He took the options he is best at and did a great job for us.”
Daniel Bell-Drummond, Kent’s sole batsman to pass 50, felt the hosts were a little ring rusty with their white-ball skills.
He said: “It was a tough start for us and we’re disappointed to lose the first one. We got off to a god start batting wise through myself and Joe [Denly], but their bowlers pegged us back nicely with their two winners showing up well in the middle. We felt 260 was at least 20 runs short of where we needed to be.
“Once Hampshire got their lines and lengths right it got a lot tougher for us and we lost wickets at regular intervals. I felt I should have batted on and taken it deep, but it wasn’t to be. Losing wickets at key stages meant we could never build partnerships, so all credit to them.”