Kent Spitfires chase record score to win at Trent Bridge
Monday 17th August 2015
England one-day star Sam Billings' third List A century inspired Kent Spitfires to chase a record total to beat Nottinghamshire and keep qualification hopes alive in the Royal London One-Day Cup at Trent Bridge.
He was ably assisted by fluent fifties from Daniel Bell-Drummond, Fabian Cowdrey and Alex Blake, who added an unbeaten 133 in 76 balls with Billings for the sixth wicket.
The five-wicket win looked a tall order after a James Taylor ton and fluent half-centuries from Alex Hales and Dan Christian helped the hosts to 335, with 317/8 in 2002 the previous best score achieved by Kent at Nottingham.
A Matt Coles hat-trick was the highlight of a extraordinary finale to the table-toppers' innings as the Outlaws lost six wickets for four runs in just ten balls.
The 25-year-old's hat-trick was only the third for Kent in limited-overs cricket with Richard Ellison (1983) and Martin McCague (1992) the only other bowlers to achieve the feat.
Mitch Claydon struck twice to finish on 4/66 and a run-out brought their innings to an abrupt end with four balls remaining.
The result returns the Spitfires to the top four of the table on net run rate with the final must-win group match at Warwickshire on Wednesday with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.