Joe Denly might be a reluctant Kent Spitfires captain but he’s a winning one now - after guiding the county to victory in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

Denly returned from injury during the group stages to guide Kent to the knock-out stages and his calm presence and clear thinking has been a key component of Spitfires’ stunning turnaround in form.

It culminated in Kent claiming a deserved 21-run win over Lancashire in Saturday’s final at Trent Bridge and Denly certainly enjoyed the experience.

“It’s never been at the top of my list of things to do but I’ve certainly enjoyed it this year with our big boys being away at The Hundred,” admitted Denly.

“With experience and the amount of cricket that I’ve played it does help. I hope the lads enjoyed playing under my captaincy.

“As a captain I try and remain as calm as I can and hopefully that rubs off on the bowlers and takes a bit of pressure off them. It seems to have worked.

“I’ve actually been quite excited, the runs of games we’ve been on and been involved in (meant) I came into this fairly confident. Obviously, there were a few nerves there but I try to hide them as much as I can.

“It’s very special. A lot of emotions are going on at the minute, to get over the line in a final is awesome.

“I’m very proud, the over-riding emotion is a proud one of the group of players that we have together, playing pretty much knockout cricket for the back-end of the competition and getting through (to win it) is very special.

“You could probably go through our whole team and at one point one of them would have contributed.”

Denly hit 78 in just 69 balls, hitting eight fours and a six, but claimed he never felt at ease during his innings.

As skipper, however, it was pleasing that he was able to make a major contribution with the bat.

“It was nice,” stated Denly. “Ollie Robinson has probably been our stand-out batter in this competition and the way he went out and played after losing that early wicket settled the nerves especially, and settled my nerves a little bit. I was delighted to contribute and get a partnership with Joey (Evison).

“It was that kind of wicket where I didn’t feel free-flowing at any point. I think they bowled pretty well, but I’m happy to get (a decent score).

“Potentially we lost a bit of momentum in those last 10 overs but they bowled pretty well as well. They recognised that it was a tough pitch to hit cutters and it was standing up a bit.

“It was tough to hit the ball straight, going after the bowling and they bowled to their fields and made it hard for us. To get over 300 I think was a big psychological barrier for us.”

There were a few raised eyebrows at the toss when Denly opted to bat first, having chased so well earlier in the competition.

It proved the right decision in the end as the pressure built-up in Lancashire’s chase, although the Kent captain knew that their fielding was important.

“I thought it looked a really good wicket, and traditionally at Trent Bridge it is a good wicket and central as well, there wasn’t really a short side,” said Denly.

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“I thought ‘get a good score on the board’ and in a final that’s very valuable. We were able to get up to a par score which naturally puts their batters under pressure being a final so that was the plan.

“If Lancashire are honest, they probably didn’t field at their best and they are normally a very good fielding outfit. There were some great catches in our innings.

“We’ve spoken about our fielding a lot in this competition - there’s been some sloppy games - but the way the boys stepped up was fantastic and that was probably the difference.”