It was the tale of two final overs on Sunday as Kent Spitfires defeated Gloucestershire by five runs to make it three wins from three at the start of the 2021 Vitality Blast.
The Spitfires fell short in their batting powerplay again, finding themselves 35/3 from six, but 50 from captain Daniel Bell-Drummond and an unbeaten 81 from the in-form Jack Leaning helped the hosts to 183/5 from their 20 overs.
Kent then struggled with the ball early on, with Gloucestershire opener Chris Dent firing from the off, but the bowlers combined to give Fred Klaassen 10 to defend in the final over. Defend he did, with four runs and three wickets coming from the six balls to give Kent the victory.
Spitfires captain Daniel Bell-Drummond won the toss and opted to bat first, giving a debut to overseas signing Qais Ahmad in place of left-armer James Logan.
Joe Denly creamed the second ball of the innings down the ground for four, but was bowled by David Payne off the fourth. The hosts did however register 10 from the first over in a positive start.
The start got a little bit worse at the end of the second over however when Ollie Robinson, similarly to Denly, tried to clear the rope, but got it all wrong and was knocked over by Josh Shaw for two.
Alex Blake then fell for a duck, edging Payne behind to Glenn Phillips, and suddenly Gloucestershire were well on top.
Daniel Bell-Drummond hit Matt Taylor for back-to-back fours – one aerial down the ground and the other cut very fine – as the hosts tried to fight back, and the Kent skipper got down on one knee to scoop Benny Howell for four to help take his team past 50.
A six out the ground and a sweep for four followed as Bell-Drummond began to get into the swing of things, and the hosts were 68/3 at the halfway stage of their innings.
Bell-Drummond brought up his 50 from 38 balls, with five fours and two sixes to his name, but he was bowled by Grame van Buuren for 51 soon after.
Kent’s 100 was up in the 14th over, and Jack Leaning then showed some signs of aggression to sweep van Buuren for six.
Jordan Cox edged to Matt Payne for 15, and 45-year-old Darren Stevens soon had to get his skates on to run some hard singles with Leaning. Leaning’s 50 was up from 39 balls with four fours and one six, before buzzers arrived. Gloucestershire thought they had Stevens run out coming back for two, but the veteran was home and the throw raced away to the boundary, allowing Kent to add six more.
Leaning made that another six with a big leg side maximum off the first ball of the 19th, but wide yorkers from Payne were doing the trick at the death. He finished with figures for 3/30 from his four overs, but Shaw couldn’t back up his partner, as Kent scored 27 from the last over: six, one, six, six, four, four.
Alex Blake opened the bowling for Kent, with his first over going for eight. Fred Klaassen then bowled the second which went for 12, with three fours in the over from Chris Dent, who raced to 19 from 11 balls.
Dent and Hammond both ran it close early on with catches just out of the reach of Stewart and Robinson respectively, and Hammond was then almost gone caught again by Milnes, who couldn’t quite reach the catch in time running in from mid-off.
Dent hooked Stewart for a big six to move to 33 from 17, and he continued the charge with a big six down the ground off Milnes. He did, however, pick out Jack Leaning on the leg side boundary the very next ball to head back to the dressing room for a very handy 40 from 21 balls.
The visitors reached 56/1 at the end of the powerplay as Qais Ahmad was brought onto bowl, and he had a wicket in his first over. With an LBW appeal against Miles Hammond turned down, Ahmad struck the opener on his pads the next ball with him trying to reverse sweep and the finger was raised.
Glenn Phillips, a man with an international T20 century to his name, soon took to Darren Stevens, getting low to slog for six as the Gloucestershire pressure continued. Phillips then hit Ahmad for four and six in the same over, and Fred Klaassen dropped a high catch off the bat of Phillips off Darren Stevens’ bowling.
Phillips responded by pulling Stevens for six, but Ian Cockbain was out to Joe Denly for seven, caught and bowled by the former England man.
Phillips dealt Ahmad six more, but was soon out and it was the wicket Kent needed – he holed out to Jordan Cox at long on for 38 and Kent were back in business.
Denly then had Taylor caught by Alex Blake running round from long on for nine, leaving his team 125/5 with five overs and one ball remaining.
Benny Howell accelerated however and moved to 35 from 17 balls, and the equation was 22 to win from two overs.
Back-to-back fours arrived from the first two balls with Gloucestershire suddenly in pole position. Milnes came back well though with four singles from the last four balls, leaving Fred Klaassen with 10 to defend from the final over.
Then the game truly came alive. Howell was bowled first ball for 44, Matt Taylor chipped to Milnes at third man first ball and Ahmad and Robinson combined to run out van Buuren for 18, leaving the visitors needing seven from the last ball to win and six to tie.
Klaassen produced again with a fine yorker that Josh Shaw could only dig out for one and Kent were the victors by five runs to go three from three in the tournament.