SURREY V KENT - NatWest T20 Blast
- 29 July 2016
Surrey 212-4 (20 Overs). Kent 175-7 (20 Overs). Surrey won by 37
runs.Jason Roy's brilliant 120 not out
from 62 balls thrilled a capacity crowd of 25,500 at the Kia Oval as
Surrey beat Kent by 37 runs on a NatWest T20 Blast night of
spectacular strokeplay.
Sadly for Surrey, however, their win did not give
them a chance of earning a quarter-final place as Essex claimed the
one remaining qualifying place from the South Group after taking one
point from their abandoned match against Glamorgan at Chelmsford.
Essex finished on 15 points, to Surrey's 14.
Surrey's 20-over total of 212 for 4 was based on a
remarkable opening partnership of 187 in 17.2 overs between Roy and
Australian big-hitter Aaron Finch, who scored 79. In reply, Kent could
only manage 175 for 7 and were never in contention after slipping
initially to 111 for 6 before Sam Northeast and Will Gidman, who ended
on 30 not out, gave the final score some respectability.
Roy struck three sixes and fifteen fours in his
highest T20 score but the only Kent batsman to reach even a
half-century was their skipper Northeast who hit two sixes and five
fours in a 44-ball 59 before becoming the seventh man out in the 19th
over.
Kent's reply started with the in-form Daniel
Bell-Drummond slamming six fours while scoring 31 of the first 35
runs, off just 17 balls, before skying Sam Curran to mid off.
Joe Denly was run out for 20 and Sam Billings
stumped off a deliberate wide for 2 when Gareth Batty, the Surrey
captain and off spinner, saw the batsman coming and fired one down the
legside for Ben Foakes to whip off the bails.
Chris Morris bowled Alex Blake for 19 and, later in
the over, the 13th of Kent's innings, saw Darren Stevens superbly held
by Roy as he sprinted in from deep cover to take a low catch sprawling
forward. Roy was the catcher again, in the next over, when Matt Coles
sliced Azhar Mahmood to square cover on the boundary.
The magnificent stand between Roy and Finch was just
five runs short of equalling the highest partnership in English
domestic T20 cricket, the 192 between Kevin O'Brien and Hamish
Marshall for Gloucestershire against Middlesex at Uxbridge in 2011. It
was, however, by some distance the biggest stand in the competition
this season.
Finch eventually launched Mitch Claydon - the only
Kent bowler to keep the run-scoring under any sort of check - to Denly
at deep mid wicket in search of a fifth six. He also hit four fours in
his 51-ball knock.
It was simply a mark of Roy's brilliance, indeed,
that Finch's innings seemed pedestrian in comparison. Roy's fifty took
29 balls, Finch's 38, yet it was not just his quicker scoring but the
crispness of his strokeplay and the imagination he showed to pick up
runs in a 360-degree arc that set Roy apart.
The England one-day opener also hit 109 against
Sussex, at Hove, earlier in the competition and, in the group stage,
has plundered 495 runs from 12 innings at an average of 45.00 and a
strike rate of 164.45. That he could outshine a limited-overs batsman
of the pedigree of Finch, throughout such a prolific stand, was
extraordinary.
Finch's departure, to the second ball of the 18th
over, was the prelude to a final thrash which also brought the wickets
of Morris, Tom Curran and Sam Curran, who was run out trying to pinch
a third run for Roy from the last ball of the innings.
Jason Roy said: "Sadly, it was not to be tonight as
far as getting a quarter-final place. We put on an absolute spectacle
and showed what we are capable of as a team but , in a way, that's the
most disappointing thing. We have lost games earlier in the group
stage we should have won, and paid for that.
"Aaron and I kicked on once we had an idea of the
pitch and we just enjoyed ourselves. There was nothing to lose. We
knew we needed a big total, to win the game and to qualify on net run
rate if it came to that, and the crowd were again special.
"It was certainly a nice pitch to bat on but we then
bowled very well too and kept taking wickets to restrict them. There
are a lot of positives from the way played tonight to take into the
rest of the season , both in terms of the 50-over competition and the
championship, and we just have to get over this disappointment and be
ready to go again in our next match."
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