Kent share spoils with Surrey in 2nd XI T20s
Tuesday 17th May 2016
Several Kent players impressed with bat and ball as honours were even in the second of three pairs of second XI T20s this week, this time at Purley against Surrey.
With places in the NatWest T20 Blast opener on Friday up for grabs, Surrey batted first after winning the toss in both matches.
Wicketkeeper-batsman and captain Gary Wilson top-scored in the first match with 41 off 40 balls with five middle-order batsman making contributions at more than a run a ball with Charlie Hartley's 3/29 the pick of the bowling.
In reply, James Tredwell's 59 off 56 balls and Fabian Cowdrey's 30 off 22 gave the Spitfires the platform to chase a modest 136 target but former Kent all-rounder Azhar Mahmood's 4/20 included some expert death bowling to secure a slender two-run win.
In the second match, Kent fought back after an early onslaught to restrict Surrey to 133 for six.
Dominic Sibley hit a quick 50 to help the hosts to 69-1 in 8.3 overs before Fabian Cowdrey, (3/19), James Tredwell (2/14) and Charlie Hartley (1/36) struck regularly to keep the scoring down.
In reply, Kent's chase was a mirror image after the Spitfires recovered from early losses with Hartley's unbeaten 39 off 22 balls and Adam Ball smashing 23 off 12 as the middle order kept up with the scoring rate required to secure a five-wicket win.