Kent Spitfires thrashed Essex Eagles by 67 runs in a record-breaking Vitality Blast win at Canterbury.
A blistering display by openers Zak Crawley and Daniel Bell-Drummond made Essex rue their decision to bowl first after winning the toss, as Kent posted 236 for three.
Bell-Drummond smashed 88 from 44 balls, including six sixes, while Crawley hit cleared the rope four times on his way to 69 from 39 balls. After a mini-wobble, Jack Leaning’s 42 not out from 17 steered Kent to their highest ever Blast score.
Leaning then took three for 15 as Essex were all out for 169, Adam Wheater their top scorer with 46.
The start was delayed by an hour due to a wet outfield and the visitors made a poor start, Wheater missing two early chances. He could have stumped Crawley when he was on nought and subsequently dropped him on 34.
Bell-Drummond reached 50 with successive sixes off Aron Niijar and Kent were 145 for nought in the 12th over when Crawley was finally lbw to Paul Walter.
Bell-Drummond survived till the 16th when he was caught by Wheater off Sam Cook and Denly fell for 8 in similar fashion, slashing at Jack Plom. This slowed the scoring rate slightly but Leaning hit 25 off the penultimate over from James Neesham and Alex Blake hit an unbeaten 16 to steer Kent past their previous record Blast score of 231.
Essex initially kept up with the run rate, but lost wickets too frequently to seriously threaten. Denly bowled Will Buttleman for eight with the fourth ball of the innings and Dan Lawrence then chopped Grant Stewart to Qais Ahmad for 16.
Michael Pepper holed out to Darren Stevens and was caught by Blake for seven, before Leaning produced a brilliant catch off his own bowling to remove Neesham for one, holding a violently-struck drive. Cox stumped Ryan ten Doeschate off Leaning for one and Leaning then bowled Walter for eight.
Ahmad dismissed Wheater with his first ball, caught by Blake at long on and Simon Harmer went down swinging with 31 before he was caught by Leaning on the cow corner boundary, off Fred Klaassen.
Plom was caught behind for nought off Matt Milnes, who secured an emphatic victory for Kent when Blake sprinted in from the long on boundary to catch Sam Cook for 18, with four balls remaining.
Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond said: The umpires made a great decision to get the game on. It was really wet out there and I think in most normal circumstances out there, without a crowd, we wouldn’t have been playing. We were a bit confused about how to start and everyone was finding their feet, but Zac got going and I followed suit.
(Asked what he thought their chances were of posting a record in the wet conditions at the St Lawrence). “Zero chance! I thought the boundaries were really small towards the Old Dover Road and I wanted to bowl first because we thought it would seam about. The groundsman said part of the wicket was a tiny bit wet, but it clearly didn’t matter. Four overs in Zac said to me I think this is really flat, I think I’ve been playing this wrong, which he wasn’t, but we all saw a green, wettish wicket, with gloomy conditions. Luckily we were able to make use of that last few overs in the powerplay and carry on.”
Essex’s head coach Anthony McGrath said: “It wasn’t a great start. There was a stumping chance in that first over which could have made a difference but when someone gets a hundred odd for none, you’re up against it. We fought back a little bit but in the end 230-odd’s always going to be a big chase. At the moment we’re not batting well and we’re not bowling well so we’ve got to find some solutions and pretty quickly.
(On bowling first) “We just felt with the wicket being under cover for the last couple of days with the rain there might be a little bit there early on. We went with the extra batting options today and made a couple of changes and changed the balance of the team, so we felt chasing was obviously the best way forward.”
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