Essex v http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kent-c802 - Friends Life T20 - South Group - Kent qualify at the expense of Essex – Cricket News Update
Kent put in a fine performance to beat rivals Essex by 15 runs, in a match of the Friends Life T20, played at the County Ground, Chelmsford, on July 15, 2011.
The star for the Kent side was Darren Stevens who put in a Player of the Match performance to guide his County to a thrilling win. He first contributed with the bat making an unbeaten 41, while also providing heroics with the bowl, claiming 4 vital wickets.
For Essex, the target proved a little too http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gordon-James-Muchall-c60376 as they could only make 168 for 9, which meant that they are eliminated from the competition.
In a day/night encounter, it was the host team’s captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/James-Bryan-Foster-c65514, who won the toss and elected to field first.
Kent openers put on a good partnership of 49 before their captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ravinder-Singh-Bopara-c84233 for 21.
However, the onslaught had just begun with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Mahmood-Sagar-c46915, who started to up the scoring rate with some good hitting.
With Azhar Mahmood perishing after a well made 31 off 19, off the bowling of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TG-Southee-c2659, it was left to Denly, and the star of the show, Stevens, to guide their side to a commanding total.
Denly fell in the 18th over, having made 69 runs, which included 5 fours and 3 huge sixes.
At the end of their 20 overs, Kent had motored to 183 for 3, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Martin-van-Jaarsveld-c74944 and Steven unbeaten, on 12 and 41 respectively.
The match was not short of controversy, as Stevens was given not-out by the third umpire, after it appeared that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SB-Styris-c2463 had taken a legal catch, running in from the third-man boundary.
It left the retired New-Zealand player fuming at the third umpire’s decision, only to be calmed down by fellow teammate, Tim Southee. At the time, Stevens had only managed 5 runs.
As Essex came for the chase, they lost opener Mark Pettini in the second over for only 7 runs, as Mahmood swinged through his defences, cleaning him up.
After Mahmood striking early, it was Stevens who lead from the front, claiming the crucial wickets of Adam Wheater(27), http://www.senore.com/Cricket/OA-Shah-c2134(27) and Ravi Bopara( 11), to keep the hosts on the back foot.
There was some resistance offered by veteran Styris, who played a good knock of 40 off just 27 balls.
However, Essex continued to lose wickets from the other end, with only http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Graham-Napier-c1505 providing some support from the late order with a quick-fire 26.
In the end http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Short-c90107 of the target.
Apart from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wahab-Riaz-c95839, who chipped in with wickets for Kent, taking 3 and 2 respectively.
The win puts Kent in the quarter-final where they will face http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Leicestershire-c807, at Grace Road.
Tags: