Blake uses three bats to get Kent over the line – and the ropes
Big-hitting Alex Blake revealed he was forced to use three bats in this match-winning 66 against Surrey in his home town of Beckenham.
A match-winning unbeaten 66 from 62 balls included eight fours as well as the decisive six off the penultimate ball of 100 overs, said afterwards: “I didn’t know it went for six at the end, only that I’d hit it well enough to beat the infield and give us the win.
"I was too busy celebrating to know where it had gone, but then I saw the umpire signalling the six.
“I sort of knew where Tom Curran was going to bowl it, given the field that had been set, so I just set myself for the shot. With three needed from the last over, it got a bit tight when we only got a single early on in the over and then Tredders was run out, but I knew what I had to do and I middled it.
“I’m a local boy here so although my club ground is in another part of Beckenham I always look forward to playing on this ground and I do enjoy it here. It’s also nice to have a lot of friends watching whenever we play at Beckenham and to show them what I can do.”
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Blake also revealed that he finished the match using one of teammate Darren Stevens’s bats after feeling something wrong with his own when swinging Stuart Meaker for a four in the 41st over. “It didn’t feel right so I swapped it initially for one of Joe Denly’s bats and then, soon after that, one of Darren’s.
"It was great to get a win today, after losing our last two T20 Blast games at the end of last week – especially the one at Hampshire where we felt we had held them to a gettable total.
“I never felt the situation today was out of control and Sam Northeast and myself looked to rotate the strike and get the twos and threes. It was a slower pitch than is usual here and, when Sam was out, I knew James Tredwell is an experienced enough cricketer to play it right in those last overs.”
Surrey head coach Michael Di Venuto said: “We knew we were a little bit short with the bat, but after pegging them back from 111 for 1 to 147 for 6 were we then in with a sniff.
"But they played very well at the end to win it and, overall, too many of our batsmen got starts but could not go on to play a big innings.”