Leicestershire v Kent

KENT cantered to an impressive six-wicket win at Grace Road to leave Leicestershire Foxes to lick their wounds in this opening NatWest Pro40 clash of the Division 2 campaign.

Played out in front of the Sky Sports cameras, Kent coped with the national exposure and the loss of Matt Walker with a groin strain to canter home to victory with 39 balls to spare.

Their three heroes were Rob Key with an excellent 63 from 90 balls, Simon Cook, who followed an brilliant bowling stint of three for 36 with a hard-hit 20 after being promoted from last man to bat at No3 three and fill the top-order berth vacated by Walker, then toward the death local lad Darren Stevens.

Born in Hinkley, just 10 miles down the road, Stevens revelled on his former home turf to bowl frugally before going on to bat with a panache that most others found impossible on this slow surface.

After electing to bat first, possibly thinking the wicket might only get slower, Leicestershire were probably reasonably pleased with their 40-over total of 175, but Kent clearly believed they were capable of better as long as they made a flying start.

Former Kent favourite Paul Nixon was the home top-scorer, using all his one day guile to hit 61 from 82 balls and with five fours, the Leicestershire beneficiary held together an innings that still fell away alarmingly come the end.

Cook, who took the wicket of Paul Harrison with his first delivery, a slower ball, caused the Foxes headaches all game, particularly with his well disguised off-spinner that no-one appeared to read, including Nixon who ended up slicing one to cover point.

Cook was given good support from Yasir Arafat, who took two for 44 from eight overs bowled straight off down the Grace Road slope, and then the slower bowlers Darren Stevens and James Tredwell, who were nigh on impossible to get away on a consistent basis. Tredwell conceded 26 from his eight overs and Stevens went for five fewer and took the wickets of Jeremy Snape (6) and James Allenby (20).

Though Foxes reached 50 after nine overs, then 100 after 24, Kent recovered from a couple of dropped chances and a missed run out to restrict them to 28 from the last 10 overs as the last four wickets went for 11 runs in the space of two overs.

As for the run chase, that proved a breeze once Andrew Hall (31) and Key posted 62 in 12 overs for the first wicket.

Hall went after playing on against another former Kent man David Masters, but then Key teamed up with Cook to add a further 45 in nine overs to release all the pressure on the batsmen to come.

Cook finally went to an excellent mid-wicket catch when middling a sweep off Mansoor Amjad who, with his next delivery, bowled Martin van Jaarsveld who played back to a quick leg-spinner that pitched middle and clipped off.

Key also went after hitting Kent's only six of the game in posting his 25th one-day 50 for Kent, caught by Nixon as he attempted a run down to third man, but Stevens, back on his former home ground, saw Kent home in tandem with Geraint Jones.

Stevens took the man-of-the-match Champagne with an unbeaten 42 from 35 balls leaving Jones to hitting the winning boundary off the home skipper Snape.

Scores: Leicestershire 175 all out 39.5 overs. Kent 179-4 33.3 overs