It’s the Battle of the Bridge this evening as Kent Spitfires host Essex Eagles at Canterbury and coach Matt Walker is glad to have bowler Fred Klaassen back available for selection.

After being beaten off the last ball at the Spitfire Ground on Sunday, Kent Spitfires now face two home games at the start of Canterbury Cricket week that will go a long way to determining their interest in the second part of the competition. 

“We’re doing lots well but we are not quite well enough!” Matt Walker’s blunt assessment of his side’s campaign thus far as the coach has seen his side go agonisingly close to winning three of their four defeats ahead of this week’s games with Essex (on Wednesday) and Hampshire (on Friday) – both 6.30pm starts at Canterbury.  

“Thats fair really!” Walker told us. “We have not though been quite good enough to do that. The table does not reflect the good cricket that we have played – it does not mean that we’re not trying to get better and work very hard, we can’t over analyse things; we know that we’ve been in all those games, but we’ve got to be more ruthless in the critical moments when they come up.”  

“Wednesday is a big game for us and if we can win that we’ll have a platform to go into Friday before the red ball break to set us up again for the second phase of the group.” 

“If you look at it in a positive way, we could easily have won four from five. We know that that is the game, we know that that’s T20 and the fine margins that this format throws up. Bar the Glamorgan game where we did not play; in all the other games we have been in the game and if a few little things go your way, we would have won them all.” 

Taking Sunday’s defeat as a point, Walker conceded that there have been too many batsmen getting in but not going onto get a big score whilst the bowlers have come agonisingly short.

“Sums us up in a nutshell! We had a pretty good powerplay with the bat – people got in only to get out when well placed at the “wrong” time as we were getting some momentum, before we had a good finish to let us post a competitive score and position.” 

“I felt that we needed a good powerplay to win the game, but we did not get it! But there was a lot of fight and resilience through the middle of the innings to get back into the game.”

“There was just a couple of overs that took it away from us where we did not need them to be multi digit which turned it back for them. Even going into the last over there was just one moment in a great over from Hogey (Michael Hogan) where he got it slightly wrong which saw a great shot!” 

“Really do want to thank the crowd who were at the game – I think I’ll even say it was the best Sunday atmosphere I’ve ever seen at Canterbury – they were brilliant, long may that continue.” 

“We have not clicked yet – we know that – but when we do there is the feeling that we are going to hammer a couple of sides when it all goes to plan and we are dominant.”

“But now it is all about sticking together and make sure that we do not overthink things… Sunday felt more like a Kent performance – more of a scrap – squeezing pressure out of the opposition, creating pressure, creating wickets, and getting ourselves a fighting chance.”

“Those defeats hurt the most and then it got taken away at the end – they are the ones that kill you! Nine games left and we must stay positive and try and win two or three in a row, it is amazing what that can do for the confidence… and the table!”  

“These two games are vital, as let us be honest, we need to win a game at some stage soon. Nine games left and seven wins gets you in and around the knock-out stages – eight almost guarantees it… so yes, we need to win at least one of these two games, and if we can win both, it will change everything pretty quickly and we won’t be far away.”

“The South group always throws up strange results and we have “just” got to stay in touch!” 

There is some good news for Walker as Fred Klaassen returns to the squad in place of Joey Evison and is almost certain to play against Essex.

“It’s great to have him back,” the coach said. “He’s one of our best bowlers and has improved so much in this format since we signed him all those years ago – his pedigree has just got better and better and he’s become a real specialist in the white ball world and we’ve missed him as it’ll give us that extra bowler that we’ve probably been missing!” 

Picture supplied by Max Flego Photography.