Surrey beat the Kent Spitfires by five wickets after a nerve-shredding run chase in the Vitality Blast at Canterbury that went all the way to the final ball.
Surrey seemed to be cruising to the target after Laurie Evans hit 52, but a cluster of wickets kept the hosts in contention until Jamie Smith and Sean Abbott took charge.
Michael Hogan was left to defend nine off the final over: Surrey tied the scores with one ball remaining and Jack Leaning just failed to cling on to an exocet from Smith off the last delivery.
Earlier Will Jacks took three for 28 as the Spitfires were limited to 173 for 5, although having been 122 for five after 16 overs, Kent at least made things interesting. Leaning was unbeaten on 34 and Sam Billings was Kent’s next highest scorer with 30.
Kent chose to bat in front of a crowd of 4,500, believed to be a record for a Sunday afternoon at the Spitfire Ground, but they lost Tawanda Muyeye for nine at the end of the first over when he was bowled by Jacks.
Joe Denly then blasted 27 from 14 balls, but when Jacks pinged his off stump it drastically slowed the run rate.
Daniel Bell-Drummond was out for 25 when he drove Jacks straight to Abbott at deep mid-on and 6.2 overs went by without a boundary until Jordan Cox pulled Chris Jordan for four in the 11th.
Billings then reverse swept Sunil Narine for six in the 13th but he was bowled leg stump off the fifth ball of the over.
The score would have been significantly lower had Surrey not shelled four chances. Cox was the first to be reprieved when he was dropped by Jamie Overton on 20, although he’d added just three when Overton atoned, snaring him on the boundary after he’d reverse-wept Narine.
Leaning was then dropped by Gus Atkinson on seven and George Linde was on 15 when Jacks parried a catchable slog off Jordan over the rope for six. Ben Foakes couldn’t cover enough ground to snare Leaning after a miscued scoop off the same bowler and the batter cashed in when he hit Sam Curran for 16 off the 20th, including an overthrow after a rash shy at the stumps by the bowler from the final delivery.
It was a total that at least allowed the home fans some hope and although Jacks and Evans charged to 62 for nought at the end of the powerplay, there was a mini-wobble when Jacks was out for 30, skying Denly to Hogan and Grant Stewart then duped Sam Curran, who was caught by a diving Joey Evison at mid-off for 10.
When Linde struck twice in 13th to remove Foakes and Evans, both caught on the boundary by Kane Richardson and Muyeye respectively, the game was back in the balance and in the next over Tom Curran swiped Stewart to Richardson, leaving Surrey on 106 for five.
At which point Abbott and Smith intervened. With 48 needed from the last four Kent were arguably favourites, but Richardson’s 17th over went for 16, Stewart’s 18th went for 14 before the penultimate, from Richardson, shipped seven.
Needing nine to win off the last over, the first four deliveries yielded four and Smith swept four from the penultimate ball to tie the scores.
The field came in for the final delivery and Leaning flung himself at a violent cut from Smith, but he couldn’t cling on for what would have been a spectacular one-handed catch and Surrey had scraped home.
Surrey’s Chris Jordan said: “It was very tense to be fair, but the entire dug-out was actually pretty calm in the end. Once Smudger started to hit the ball, he really hit it well. It was a phenomenal innings and he really iced the game in the end, especially that clutch shot from the second last ball of what turned out to be a very good Hogan over.
“It was phenomenal. It was a solid bowling innings to start with. I think we dropped a couple too many catches which probably cost us maybe 15 to 20 runs in the end because Leaning went on to hit a few more sixes, but all in all our execution and our plans were brilliant.
“Jacko started off the innings and set the tone and everyone just backed him up after that. Obviously off the back of a loss the other night, to get a win is pleasing.
“They got a little bit more than we wanted, but the way we batted in the powerplay suggested we didn’t have a hangover going into our innings and the way Laurie and Jacko started was unbelievable to get 60 in the powerplay.
“I think actually we probably took the game too close in the end after the way we came out of powerplay none down. We should have kept the rate under control, maybe hovering at seven and eight for the rest of the innings, but obviously they’re allowed to bowl well too and they took a few wickets.
“I was pretty calm (in the final over) to be honest. Once he’d hit the four we couldn’t lose the game and all the momentum was with Smudger at that point so I had no doubt that he would win the game.”
Kent’s George Linde said: “It’s unfortunate we lost that one. I thought we had it but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. It’s just unlucky, it’s one of those things.
“I thought 170 on that wicket was a pretty good total. We would have expected about 160 on that wicket and we got 12 runs more so I thought it was enough, but unfortunately it wasn’t. They played well so hats off to them.
“We had momentum when we came on to bowl but unfortunately they took that powerplay on quite well. I think that’s when they probably won the game.”
(Did he think he had Smith lbw? “No, I didn’t think it was out.” (Laughs)
“I’d been playing good cricket before I came here. I struggled in the first couple of games but I feel pretty confident. I back myself and I know what a player I can be. I’ve got to prove to the Kent fans who I am and hopefully this season that’ll happen and I’m pretty confident that it will. We’re definitely still in it.”