Warwickshire completed back-to-back Metro Bank One-Day Cup wins with an emphatic 79-run victory over Kent at Rugby School.

The Bears totalled 283 for nine largely thanks to Ed Barnard (60 from 68 balls) and Kai Smith 58 (57). On a pitch offering some turn, they coped most capably with a spin attack led by Matt Parkinson who bowled beautifully for 10-0-36-1,

Kent replied with 204 all out, only ever partially recovering from the early straits of 19 for three. Jaydn Denly hit 52 (58) and Harry Finch 50 (62) but leg-spinner Tazeem Ali followed his five for 43 against Northamptonshire last Sunday with five for 54 as the visitors succumbed to their third defeat in three games in the competition.

In front of another excellent crowd at the lovely outground, Warwickshire chose to bat, seeking a stronger start than in their first two group games – 38 for seven and 32 for four. They got it as openers Barnard and Rob Yates (46, 44) added 97 in 14 overs before Yates drove Joey Evison to cover.  

Kent’s spinners reeled the run-rate back in by taking wickets. Barnard posted a polished 52-ball half-century, passing 2,000 career List A runs in the process, but overbalanced on a sweep and was stumped off Denly. Zen Malik drove Denly to cover, Hamza Shaikh fell to a superb catch by his England U19s colleague Ekansh Singh at deep mid-wicket off Jack Leaning. Alex Davies lifted Parkinson to long off, supplying the leg-spinner with a well-deserved wicket.

At 179 for five, Warwickshire needed rebooting and Smith and Vansh Jani (42, 36) delivered with a fluent partnership of 79 from 64 balls. Again, Kent hit back well towards the end as Fred Klaassen had Smith caught behind and Grant Stewart trapped Michael Booth and Jani lbw in the same over.

Kent’s reply started badly as they lost three wickets in four balls to lurch to 19 for three. Ben Dawkins was caught at cover off Barnard who bowled Evison first ball. Chris Benjamin, facing his former team-mates, also bagged a golden duck when he edged Ethan Bamber and wicketkeeper Smith took a fine diving catch.

Denly and Finch rebuilt with an assured stand of 91 in 88 balls but both perished soon after reaching their half-centuries. Denly sliced Tazeem Ali to short third man and Finch skied an attempted big hit at Adam Sylvester.

Sylvester marked his List A debut with an excellent first spell of 5-1-7-1 and his accuracy throttled the pursuit in tandem with Tazeem’s potency. Tazeem hit the stumps of Jack Leaning and Grant Stewart and, after Booth bowled Singh 42 (54), returned to remove Parkinson and Michael Cohen in four balls and follow his maiden five-for in the previous game with another match-shaping performance.

Warwickshire wicketkeeeper/batter Kai Smith said:”It was a strong team performance. It was not an easy pitch to bat on, as the innings went on the ball seemed to get a lot softer and took spin so it was a really good effort to get to 283. All the contributions from the guys, the 40s and the 20s, were important. They added up to a decent score in the end which gave us some confidence to go out and bowl with.

“I was pleased to get some runs. It’s always great to contribute to the team, especially at times when the game is tight. I like to stand up in those moments and try to put in a special performance for Bears.

“I’m loving playing at Rugby. It’s great to see all the fans and the support we have – and what a lovely place to play cricket! It is an amazing view and now we are just looking forward to coming back here on Friday. We have a day off tomorrow so will come back on Friday ready to try to make it three wins out of three here.”

Kent head coach Adam Hollioake said: “It was disappointing. I felt the toss was quite important in this game. It would have been nice to win the toss because the wicket spun and deteriorated as it went along. It was a good wicket but definitely got harder to bat on second time round and batting did get harder as the ball got older in both innings.

“We are playing three Under 19s players and they have played well but we have just got to try to find a way of being a bit more competitive. With the ball I thought we were disappointing in the first hour and that really allowed them to get to a total which was always going to be tough to chase.

“I think we did well to keep them to that total. We started off that badly at one stage I thought we were looking at we would be chasing over 300 so we did rein them back in and that was a positive. But all in all, it was disappointing. We have got a young side and we have just got to try to push on and improve.”