Kent Spitfires v Middlesex Crusaders

Kent landed their fourth Twenty20 Cup win of the campaign and dented the unbeaten record of Southern Division leaders by winning Friday night’s rain-reduced game in Beckenham by 25 runs.

Heavy showers delayed the start at Worsley Bridge Road until 7.35pm with the loss of 24 overs – 12 per side – but a near 5,000 crowd remained patient and were rewarded with some Kent power-hitting as the hosts posted an eight over total of 86-7 and defended it with ease.

Crusaders’ reply started coming off the rails as early as the second over when Eoin Morgan (10) heaved across an Azhar Mahmood slower ball to be bowled off his pads.

Ed Joyce then smeared an attempted drive against Simon Cook’s first ball of the night to be bowled for two.

The real drama came in the fourth over, the first from James Tredwell, who took wickets with his first, fourth and fifth balls of the over whilst conceding only two runs.

Billy Godleman (6) missed a reverse sweep to go leg before, Daniel Housego (1) chipped back a return catch to the bowler then, without scoring, Ben Scott ran down the pitch attempting to drive his first ball only to be bowled.

Cook and Tredwell went on to bowl tight second overs and Middlesex were left needing to score 53 to win from the last two overs.

Shaun Udal and opener Dawid Malan (25) did their best, taking 18 off Ryan McLaren’s sole over, but there was very little chance of Mahmood conceding 35 in his last over of the night – in fact, he only gave away nine while a further two wickets fell leaving Crusaders on 61-7 and defeated.

Tredwell finished with 3-9, Mahmood 2-13 and Cook 1-10. Incredibly there were no extras in the entire game.

Batting first after winning the toss Kent scored at a rate of 10.75 an over to set Crusaders their testing target.

Joe Denly opened Kent's boundary count with a clip over mid-wicket for six in the first over from Tim Murtagh, but perished next ball in trying to repeat the shot and was superbly caught by Billy Godleman running in from the ropes.

Martin van Jaarsveld also cleared the ropes in the second over from Dirk Nannes with a powerful cut over point on his way to 13 then, with his score on nine, Rob Key holed out to Ed Joce at long off to make it 28-2.

Off the next ball van Jaarsveld skied off the leading edge to be held by Shaun Udal at extra cover, bringing big hitters Justin Kemp and Azhar Mahmood together for a stand that added 30 in two overs.

The pair took 22 from one over by Tim Murtagh with Kemp blasting 28 off 10 balls in all before he holed out to deep mid-wicket off a waist high full-toss that several of the Kent contingent felt should have been called as a no ball.

Azhar Mahmood (7), Ryan McLaren (3) and Geraint Jones (0) all went in the slog for late runs as Middlesex attempted to keep a grip on the run rate.

Steve Finn took an amazing 2-6 from his one over of the night and the Crusaders will have been delighted to concede no extras.

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