Ravi Bopara hundred leaves Kent sweating on last-eight spot
Sussex 228 for 7 (Bopara 108) beat Kent 117 for 4 (Cox 37*) by 11 runs (DLS technique)
An excellent century from Ravi Bopara helped the Sussex Sharks beat the Kent Spitfires by 11 runs in a rain-affected Vitality Blast match at Canterbury on Friday night time.
Bopara performed an impressive, nearly chanceless, innings to document his highest-ever T20 rating of 108 from 53 balls, with 18 fours and only one six, as Sussex posted an enormous 228 for 7, Tom Clark getting their next-highest rating with 47.
Kent had been 31 for one in reply after 3.2 overs when heavy rain started to fall and so they had been set a revised goal of 129 from 10 overs through the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method. Needing to hit out as quickly as play resumed, they misplaced wickets too frequently to significantly threaten Sussex and completed on 117 for 4, though they continue to be within the high 4.
There was one other Friday night time sell-out on the Spitfire Ground, however Kent’s choice to bowl first quickly backfired as they struggled to deal with damp and blustery circumstances.
Jack Leaning bowled Harrison Ward for five with the fifth ball of the night time and Oli Carter additionally went early, chipping Matt Quinn to Michael Hogan at mid-on for 3 however from 14 for two the Sharks launched a blistering counterattack. Bopara cowl drove his first ball for 4 and took 14 from the over. Clark then took 18 from Leaning’s subsequent over and it was 73 for two by the tip of the powerplay, by which period persistent drizzle was falling.
Clark regarded in incendiary type, however when he tried to take a single off Joey Evison he was despatched again by Bopara and run out by George Linde. Shadab Khan got here in and hit Linde for successive sixes, however when he tried to repeat the feat he was caught by Jordan Cox on the boundary for 15.
Michael Burgess hit 21 from 14, however after switch-hitting Linde for six he was caught behind off the following ball.
Bopara responded by taking 19 from Grant Stewart’s fifteenth over and he reached three figures with a sublime cowl drive off Hogan for 2 within the nineteenth. Hogan had Fynn Hudson-Prentice lbw for 16 and Bopara lastly went for 108, maybe unluckily, when he hit a waist-high full toss from Quinn to Alex Blake.
Kent knew they’d should eclipse their earlier highest run chase of 207 to win a T20 match however simply three got here from the primary over and Tawanda Muyeye then performed on to Ari Karvelas and was bowled for 1.
Blake went in at No. 3 for his first look of the season and instantly went on the cost. He hit the primary ball of Tymal Mills’ fourth over for 4 and dumped the following into the Sainsbury’s subsequent to the bottom for six, however at this level the umpires determined the rain had grow to be too heavy and after they returned Kent wanted 98 from 40 balls.
Daniel Bell-Drummond, having scored 480 runs throughout codecs within the earlier week, needed to retire damage on 7 and though Sam Billings was dropped by Clark off his first ball, earlier than the over was out Blake holed out for a 12-ball 30.
Linde hit 12 from three earlier than he was run out chasing a second however Billings and Cox nearly stored Kent in it. The former was run out chasing a non-existent single and after Mills went for simply six within the nineteenth, Kent wanted 26 from Nathan McAndrew’s last over. They may solely handle 14 however outcomes elsewhere imply they will nonetheless qualify in the event that they win at Taunton on Sunday.