Kent lost by five wickets

KENT suffered their second Twenty20 Cup defeat of the campaign and left their qualification for the quarter-finals in the balance following a five-wicket reverse against Essex Eagles at Chelmsford.

Chasing Kent’s disappointing total of 157 all out, Eagles made a great start with a first wicket stand worth 68 between Ronnie Irani and Mark Pettini.

Within five overs the fiery Irani was involved in a verbal spat with Spitfires equally combustible keeper Niall O’Brien, after which the Kent gloveman was invited to return to his position by both the Essex skipper and umpire Michael Harris.

The argument merely served to bolster Irani’s concentration and determination and he continued to make his mark by hitting a six out of the ground from Simon Cook’s sole over of the night that cost 16 runs.

Pettini holed out off James Tredwell to go for 27, but Irani then teamed up with Andre Adams to bat the game out of Kent’s weak grasp with a second wicket stand of 39 in under four overs.

Adams took sixes off Tredwell and then Hall with an incredibly wristy back-foot force off Andrew Hall that sailed over the ropes at backward point on his way to 21 in nine balls.

Acting captain Min Patel introduced himself from the River End and had an immediate impact with three wickets for three runs from his first eight balls.

Adams clipped a full-toss to long-on, Will Jefferson (0) missed a paddle shot then, in Patel’s next over James Foster (1) missed an attempted sweep top go leg before.

In-between times Irani went to a 41-ball 50 with his third six that just cleared Darren Stevens at deep mid-wicket, but two balls later he shuffled across to a Khan yorker to go leg-before for 53.

With the tension mounting and 19 required from the last three overs James Middlebrook hoisted a six into the stands off Patel to ease the nerves of a sell-out and hugely partisan crowd of 6,000 as he and Ryan ten Doeschate steered their side home with eight balls to spare.

Though Kent scored two more runs than the previous evening in Hove, there was still a feeling that with much shorter boundaries at New Writtle Street, their total was below par.

Six of their top seven, Tyron Henderson being the exception, made it into double figures but no one went on to play the defining innings of the evening.

Their start was steady if unspectacular but an opening stand of 35 ended in the fifth over when Stevens (18) miscued an attempted drive off Graham Napier to pick out ten Doeschate at extra cover.

Fellow opener Neil Dexter (23) tossed away his wicket when, with the score on 57, he called for a single to mid-on only to be sent back by Hall and lose the race back to the crease when Middlebrook hit direct.

Martin van Jaarsveld (18) upped the tempo with three successive fours when Adams bowled with too much width, but then he walked across his stumps to go leg before to Napier.

In the following over Hall’s 18-ball innings of 27 ended when he sliced Grant Flower’s first ball of the night straight down the throat of deep

Cover.

Ten runs on and Henderson, after a couple of wild flails, edged another swish low into the gloves of Foster to bring together left-handers Matthew Walker and James Tredwell to add 35 in four overs.

Walker hit Flower out of the arena and into the gardens of an adjacent block of flats on his way to 25 from 17 balls, but his fun ended when he scooped a leading edge high to long-on.

O’Brien’s poor batting form continued when he holed out to deep mid-wicket to go for two then top-scorer Tredwell went for 28 from 19 balls when trying to pull a good-length ball from Darren Gough’s penultimate over.

In the final over Cook (1), in for Joe Denly who missed out with a sore shoulder, slogged to long-on then, having hit a straight six off Andy Bichel, Patel lost leg stump when trying to waft to leg.

Backed by some energetic out-fielding, Napier had taken three for 32, while Gough, Bichel and Flower claimed two wickets apiece.

Having restricted Kent to less than 160, Eagles came out to bat with a strut, looking like a side who knew the target was well within their scope – and so it proved.

At this rate, four sides could yet finish on 10 points apiece and, with only three likely to qualify for the knock-out stages, one of the southern group county's may yet end the campaign bitterly disappointed.