In the second of Kent’s two days of home list A cricket away from Canterbury, they hosted Division A leaders Leicestershire in the Metro Bank One Day Cup at Beckenham and enjoyed a straightforward victory.
Having won the toss, the visitors elected to bat first hoping to take advantage of Kent resting their overseas opening bowler Keith Dudgeon, along with his usual partner Matt Milnes who is a late call up to the Hundred.
As a result Grant Stewart and Matt Quinn took the new balls and did well not to let the Foxes get away quickly in the first power-play. Rishi Patel tried to be positive but perished when attempting an expansive drive off Stewart but could only edge it and wicketkeeper Chris Benjamin dived to take an excellent catch.
Joey Evison then came on against the team who he’d played for on loan earlier in the season and Tom Scriven went after him immediately, but could only chip a catch to mid-on where Stewart took a comfortable catch.
It was then Matt Parkinson’s turn to exert pressure. He’d had a bad day at the Kia Oval against Surrey four days earlier, but bounced back and bowled beautifully in this match.
After two overs in which he had beaten the bat several times, he tempted opener Stephen Eskinazi to leave his crease and Benjamin completed a smart stumping to dismiss him for 26. Two balls later, Nick Kelly came charging down the wicket and Benjamin had plenty of time to remove the bails.
At 57 for 4, the visitors had to rebuild and Hamza Shaikh dug in. Ben Cox stayed with him until the 31st over when he was dismissed by Tawanda Muyeye, and at 118 for 5, the visitors were still in trouble.
At 162 for 6, with ten overs remaining, it looked slightly better for them but they had a lot to do. Parkinson’s ten overs had been completed, he ended with 2 for 27, and 99 runs were plundered from the last ten overs, 59 from the last five. Shaikh was dismissed in the final over for 93, caught at long on by Harry Finch off Quinn, and the East Midlanders finished on 261 for 7.
Allowed to play for Kent by his Hundred franchise, Muyeye backed up his four good overs by taking the attack to the visitors’ bowlers. When he was out for 30 in the tenth over, Kent were already on 59, well ahead of where there opposition were at the same stage.
Sam Northeast then joined Daniel Bell-Drummond and they put on 76 in 17 overs before the former chipped up a catch when on 32. Jaydn Denly was then pushed up the order, maybe as a gamble to try and win quickly to improve Kent’s net run rate, but he perished for five when lifting a reverse sweep off former Spitfire, Mo Rizvi, straight to Ben Green.
Playing a captain’s innings, Bell-Drummond continued on his merry way. He completed his half century from 53 balls and received good support from Finch (31 from 36) and Benjamin (24 not out from 30).
The skipper reached his hundred from 104 balls and finished with 133 not out from 126. There were two and a half overs to spare as Kent cruised home by six wickets.
Pictures supplied by Keith Gillard.