Kent Spitfires v Middlesex Crusaders

KENT kept their Twenty20 qualification hopes alive with a excellent 26-run win over Middlesex at Beckenham that all but rules the Crusaders out of the knock-out stages.

Spitfires cruised to their third win of the southern group after dismissing Middlesex, fresh from a win over Surrey, for only 120 with eight balls of their innings still remaining.

Having mustered 146 for four on a pitch that was much flatter and fairer than Monday night's trampoline affair here, Kent bowled intelligently and fielded tigerishly to take the last six Middlesex wickets for 50 runs - three of them going to Morne Morel who took the man-of-the-match award for his four-over spell that conceded only 24 runs.

Having lost England opener Andrew Strauss in Morkel's first over of the night to a regulation slip catch, Middlesex limped to 17 before former Kent player Ed Smith became the side's second casualty and Morkel's second victim.

Pushing half-forward in defence the ball bounced up off the pitch, hit the back of Smith's bat and onto the top of off stump.

Ex-Middlesex seamer Simon Cook then got in on the act for Spitfires, Having Jamie Dalrymple well held by Geraint Jones when stood up to the stumps bringing together left-handers Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan for the best stand of the reply.

The pair put on 40 and looked capable of taking the game out of Kent's hands but the introduction of off-spinner James Tredwell, with two accurate overs from the Palace End, then the re-introduction of Morkel proved the turning point in Kent's favour.

Morgan, with three sixes in his 34, fenced at Morkel and edged to slip, then Joyce (19) top-edged a pull off Cook to be caught in the deep.

Nick Compton (7) holed out to give Tredwell a deserved scalp and when big-hitting Tyron Henderson drove down the throat of long-on against Yasir Arafat the game was as good as over.

Chad Keegan showed some fight to reach 24 off 15 balls, but he lost his off stump when driving against McLaren to spark a dramatic end.

Tom Murtagh slogged to cow corner to be held on the run by Tredwell then, off the next ball, Murali Kartik was run out by Geraint Jones when trying to steal a leg bye to bring the game to a close.

Though Kent rotated the strike, ran their singles well and created firm foundations to their innings, they never quite pushed on to post the sort of score that would have truly batted Middlesex out of the game.

Spitfires' acting captain van Jaarsveld adjusted the batting order slightly by demoting himself to No3. and sending left-hander Matt Walker to open with Joe Denly.

Walker barely hit a ball out of the middle of his bat in scoring 13 from 11 balls for his part in an opening stand of 29 with Denly, who got the board ticking with the first six of the night, a pick-up clip off Keegan in the fourth over.

Walker perished in the next over when, despite finally hitting one cleanly, his drive on the up against his former team-mate Tyron Henderson picked out Murali Kartik at mid-on.

Van Jaarsveld and Denly then joined forces to add 56 in seven overs. In the main it was all sensible one-day batting but Denly added the occasional sparkle with two sixes in one over from Jamie Dalrymple and another following a slog sweep against Chad Keegan.

Denly had reached 40 from 33 balls when his fun came to a sudden end. Down the pitch and clipping leg-side against Dalrymple he picked out Keegan who made a firm, throat-high chance look easy.

Two overs later van Jaarsveld, on 36 from 29 balls, was lured down the pitch by the flight of Dalrymple only to be beaten all ends up when the ball turned extravagantly to give Ben Scott a leg-side stumping that made it 93 for three.

Six runs, on Darren Stevens, having notched six from eight balls, tossed his wicket away by trying to clear the ropes with a shot into a fierce cross wind. Aiming a leg-side blow off Kartik, the ball held up on the breeze and floated gently to Ed Joyce, who made a comfortable catch.

There were only five overs left at that point and Kent needed to press on, but still boundaries were hard to come by for both Jones and McLaren.

There were occasional blows that lifted the crowd from their slumbers, McLaren heaved to cow corner to clear the ropes in the penultimate over from Henderson, then Jones clipped Murtagh for a big six in the last over as the pair added 46 through to the close. It took Kent to a workmanlike total and one that proved beyond the nerves of Middlesex.