Kent Spitfires booked themselves a home Quarter Final place in the Royal London Cup with a 59 runs win over Sussex Sharks on Wednesday night.

Sam Northeast’s side were always in charge of the rain interupted tie and secured victory by a comfortable margin with the Duckworth Lewis method deciding the winners on a changeable day and night at Canterbury.

Having won the toss, Sussex captain Ed Joyce elected to put Kent into bat and he may well have regreted it within a matter of overs.

The pitch looked to be a good one to bat on and openers Sam Northeast and Daniel Bell-Drummond seemed to be relatively comfortable against the new ball.

Bell-Drummond looked in assured touch, whilst Northeast was happily knocking it around until he nicked Lewis Hatchett to Ben Brown behind the stumps on 20.

That brought Ben Harmison to the crease and the former Durham man was showing some intent from the off, picking off the bad balls, whilst working the singles.

He (33) and Bell-Drummond added 69 for the second wicket before holing out at long off with Stefan Piolet happy to see Luke Wright cling on to the catch on the boundary.

Fabian Cowdrey was as busy as ever at number four and worked the ball around whilst scampering twos with Bell-Drummond. The pair took the side through to 129 for 2 at the halfway point of the Kent innings with Bell-Drummond bringing up his fifty off just 60 balls.

The opener survived two big scares, firstly as he ended up at the same end as Cowdrey as they pushed for a single, but the throw from the deep was poor and secondly when he smashed Liddle up in the air, but three converging fielders couldn’t lay a finger on it.

That helped Bell-Drummond move past his previous best List A score of 61, whilst Cowdrey was to perish on 40 off just 32 balls as Liddle got one to straighten and clip his pad before the bat.

Bell-Drummond was to depart at the start of the batting powerplay in the 36th over as he cut Arafat to Craig Cachopa at point for 83, leaving to a standing ovation.

Big hitting Darren Stevens hit some lusty blows in his 22 balls, amassing 24 runs with 3 fours and a six, but he was undone by a Yasir Arafat yorker that rearranged his stumps.

Young guns Alex Blake and Sam Billings looked to push the Sussex attack around until Blake picked out Matt Machin in the deep off Arafat for 20.

With four overs to come Kent had moved along to 269/6 and still had ideas of scoring something in excess of 300, but Sussex had other ideas.

Calum Haggett chipped Piolet to Wright at cover for 2, Tredwell edged Arafat to Brown for one and Claydon was run out for one as Kent looked to sneak a second run.

In the end, Bollinger was run out off the penultimate ball for 3 as Kent closed on 299 all out, leaving Sam Billings stranded unbeaten on 51 in an innings that contained some audascious shots with 3 fours and a six that took in just 39 balls.

No sooner had the players left for a spot of tea, the heavens opened and we had the first of the rain delays with Sussex coming out to bat believing they needed 284 to win inside 45 overs.

Openers Luke Wright and Chris Nash looked up for the task as they smashed the Kent attack around, but Bollinger got his revenge on Wright (21) with Ben Harmison pulling off a fine catch at backward point.

Nash was to get to 24 before he tickled Darren Stevens to James Tredwell at slip leaving Sussex on 68 for 2. When the rain came again, Sussex were 82 for 2 and after some revised calculations, they resumed at 8:15pm needing 243 to win inside 35 overs.

Shortly after resuming, Sussex had just sneaked above the D/L rate, but Tredwell got Craig Cachopa (16) to chip one to Doug Bollinger at mid off, putting the home side back in control once again.

Not long later and Ed Joyce tried to cut Tredwell down to third man, but only succeeded in exposing his stumps, getting bowled for 47, leaving Sussex 126 for 4 in the 21st over and falling ever further behind the asking rate.

Calum Haggett came back into the attack and had an immediate impact as he had Machan lbw for 13 leaving Sussex 130 for 5 in the 22nd over.

A couple of overs further on and Mitch Claydon joined the party as he bowled Ben Brown for 8 as Sussex stumbled to 140 for 6.

Needing to kick on, Stefan Piolet looked to get after Tredwell, but managed to sky one to Bollinger at mid off for 5 as Sussex limped to 158 for 7 as the asking rate climbed ever further.

Former Kent all-rounder Yasir Arafat had made his way to 21 when he became Tredwell’s fourth victim of the night, dancing past one allowing Sam Billings to whip the bails off.

It didn’t take long for the ninth wicket to fall as Mitch Claydon bowled Will Beer for 4 as Sussex stepped closer to defeat on 169 for 9 and it was Claydon that wrapped up the win with Lewis Hatchett bowled for 5 and the visitors had been skittled for 183.

James Tredwell was to finish with figures of 4 for 27 in his seven overs, whilst Claydon will be happy with his return of 3 for 26 in five and a half overs.

The Spitfires will complete their Royal London Cup group campaign with a tie against Middlesex at Canterbury next Wednesday safe in the knowledge that they have already booked a home Quarter Final tie and they’re one step closer to a trip to Lord’s.

 

Sussex Sharks won the toss and elected to bowl.

Kent side: Northeast, Bell-Drummond, Harmison, Stevens, Cowdrey, Blake, Billings, Haggett, Tredwell, Claydon, Bollinger.

Sussex side: Wright, Nash, Joyce, Cachopa, Machan, Brown, Piolet, Arafat, Beer, Hatchett, Liddle.

Umpires: RJ Evans & MA Gough

Result: Kent Spitfires 299 all out (Bell-Drummond 83, Billings 51*; Arafat 4/49), Sussex Sharks 183 all out (Joyce 47; Tredwell 4/27, Claydon 3/26).

Kent Spitfires won by 59 runs (D/L method).