An unbeaten half-century from Jason Roy helped Surrey to a thoroughly dominant nine-wicket victory against Kent Spitfires to keep his side firmly in the hunt for the knockout stages of the T20 Blast
Surrey raced to 106 for one inside just nine overs to canter to victory, chasing down Kent’s below-average performance with the bat, having been bowled out for 102 with a full three overs to spare.
Roy made it a week to remember, following up an unbeaten hundred against Sussex on Wednesday night with a measured 50 not out as Surrey romped home with more than 11 overs to spare to stay firmly in the hunt near the top of the South Group. Defeat firmly ended any feint and lingering hope Kent had of progressing in the tournament.
Roy put on 63 with Josh Phillippe (20*), after Laurie Evans hit a breezy 25 and was the only wicket to fall for Surrey, who hardly out of second gear all day eased to their fourth straight win in the competition.
Kent were blown away with the bat, bowled out for 102 inside 17 overs.
If there was anything memorable about a dismal night with the bat for Kent, it was the nature of two freak wickets. Ekansh Singh won’t forget this T20 Blast debut in a hurry, treading on his stumps to get on top of a Jordan Clark short ball, with seemingly nobody in the ground noticing until Ollie Pope went to collect a throw-in to the stumps. To cap off a poor display with the bat, the innings meandered to a comical end. Harry Finch was run out at the non-striker’s end after lifting his bat to evade a drive from Matt Milnes that flicked Sean Abbott’s hand before going on to hit the stumps.
The tale of the innings was a combination of poor shots, freak dismissals and tight Surrey bowling who kept their foot on the neck of the Kent batters and never let go.
Clark led the way in a dominant Surrey attack, taking 3 for 26, backed up by a miserly spell of 2 for 5 from three overs from Chris Jordan. Dan Lawrence twirled away with two wickets, while Reece Topley and Sean Abbott both picked up a wicket apiece.
In truth, Kent never really got going. Only Zak Crawley with 31 off 19 balls looked like withstanding the Surrey onslaught, while Daniel Bell-Drummond, Finch and Jake Lintott registered double figures.
